I wander the town with my new money burning a hole in my pocket. I realize I have no idea how much a copper coin can buy me.
First thing, I need to earn enough to repay the tailor who gave me these clothes. Also I need to get an adaptive point in strength, or any other physical stat (maybe?) so that I don't have to worry about my clothes dropping every time I log out.
I don't think I have to eat to survive. I hope I don't have to.
Games where food is a mechanic always stress me out. But food prices should be a good marker to help me understand the economy right?
I browse the street stalls and peruse restaurant menus. It looks like a meal at a restaurant costs between 12-15 copper, with some nice places costing more. Food from a typical street stall costs around 6-9 copper, and fresh ingredients cost less.
So a copper is about a dollar? That's convenient.
That also means my net worth is currently less than $5.
Ugh.
I find my way to a tailor.
Let's figure out what my first goal is.
I walk in to the tailor shop (not the same one I first went in to) and look through the clothing.
Um.
I feel like I'm shopping in a boutique mall. Where the *cheapest* stuff is the most expensive stuff back home. You can't get a pair of pants for less than 40 copper, or a pair of shoes for less than 40, or a shirt for less than 20.
Then again, I can’t remember the last time I actually went to a mall. My clothing has come from thrift stores since I was old enough to buy my own.
That means a set of starting clothing is worth about $100. My broken equipment is probably worth… half that.
And I made $3.60 in a morning of gathering.
I've got a very long way to go.
---
I make my way to the guild hall. While I may have zero stats, I still have some skills I brought with me from real life. Plants, in particular, are one of my specialties. Maybe there is a gathering quest for a local herbalist, or someone who wants help in their garden. Something that doesn't require strength. Or dexterity. Or fighting monsters. Or running from them or avoiding them. Or anything but basic skills for that matter.
Lol.
I go up to one of the full-service counters. The person at the counter greets me with a cheerful smile.
"Good afternoon! How can I help you today?"
"I have pretty low stats but I need to make some money. No hunt quests please or anything that would require me to kill anything. Someone told me I might have a gathering skill, but I'm not totally sure about that. I'm wondering if there are any quests involving plants where that might be valuable?"
The woman listens with an occasional nod of her head, then starts talking aloud.
"So you're looking for a quest ideally involving gathering plants, but more importantly that has an extremely low risk of battle, with added monetary value for good results?"
"Yeah! Whatever that is it sounds perfect!"
"Alright, searching quest database. Please wait."
The woman closes her eyes. A few seconds later, the woman's eyes reopen and she reaches into a stack of paper and pulls out three sheets. Each has a half-star stamped on the bottom left corner - one is brown, and the other two are green.
The first quest is helping to dig holes in the fields south of town. Apparently there's a big event beginning tomorrow and they need help digging holes that will be used for fencing / etc.
Fields south of town. I'm really bad with directions... so I have no idea where that is.
Wait! Item Drop Guy is on the East of Fountain Square. Just to the left of his shop is the palace. Which means the fountain green runs from the center of the city to the south gate.
Which also means that south of the city...
"What about the slimes?!?!?"
"Slimes are passive. They are unintelligent and do not attack unless provoked."
Oh. Well...
My mind recalls the terror of being chased by hundreds of faceless slimes in the fields south of town.
No thank you.
The next quest is helping with the rose gardens at the palace. With my luck, I'd end up bleeding to death after being stabbed by thorns.
The third quest is working in the orchards just west of town, helping to pick fruit. Fruit is graded by quality, from 1-10. For every 100 points of fruit, the quest promises 1 copper.
At best, I'd be making 10 cents per fruit. At worst, a penny each. Either way, it beats bleeding to death or having to face the slimes again.
I accept the green-star quest and head out the west gate of the city. The fruit orchards are just beyond an open field that separates them from the city. My objective is a farmhouse on the north side.
I check in with the old man there and show him the quest. He looks at my ragged clothing, almost says something, stops himself, then almost says something again.
"If you're hungry, I can give you something to eat. But if you're here for the quest I need someone who is actually willing to work."
??????
Oh.
Ragged shoes.
No money.
Torn shirt and pants.
I must look like a beggar. And choosing to do a "quest" with no penalty that involves food could be a way to potentially get a free meal.
Up until just now that hadn't even crossed my mind.
"No sir. I'm not a beggar, just fallen on rough times at the moment. Looking for honest work where I can make a difference and get paid for what I do."
The old man's eyes widen as I speak. I mean, in real life I'm a businessman. I don't beg, and I'm not about to try to steal from someone, even if I'm hungry. I work and get paid honestly for what I do.
"Alright then! These are the gathering baskets, picking tools, and gloves you'll be using. I don't know if you can appraise quality, but be extremely careful with the fruit. Placing it into an inventory will cause invisible damage. Trust me on that one. If you bruise it or damage it, people won't pay as much for it, so you get paid less. Any damaged fruit will only get you half a quality point. 200 damaged fruit for 1 copper. Otherwise, there are a couple different types of fruit on the trees. The yellow prickly fruit are worth the most points to you, but they are also the most delicate. Even dropping the basket on the ground will damage those. When you bring them back to the barn, sort different fruit into different bins. The bins are color-coded. Fruit should only be placed in a single layer on each tray.”
“I'll be working down on the south side on a project - since it's fruit season we're having some problems with pests - so start here close to the barn and work your way from there.”
He starts heading out, then turns back to me.
“Also. Don't eat any of the fruit. Some of it is poisonous, and I don't want someone dying on me - adventurer or not. If you're still working when I get back I'll give you some food to eat. Otherwise I'll grade the fruit and send the money to the guild.”
He walks out and leaves me in the mostly empty barn. It looks like there are three different colors of bins - red, yellow, and green. The yellow ones are the most valuable right? Then I'll start picking the red and green, figure out a method that keeps the fruit safe and picking fast, then spend most of my time carefully picking yellow.
Most games wouldn't even give me a chance to survive without killing monsters. Here I get to carefully pick fruit? I got this.
---
Koji
I log in and walk over to the guild hall, looking for a hunt quest. Hunt quests are quests to vanquish a specific mob, a number of mobs, or an entire group. They have red guild stamps, with stars that represent the difficulty of the quest. A 1-star quest is a challenge for a beginner. A 2-star quest is a challenge for a balanced beginner group of two - a support and a fighter to engage, or a tank and a dps mage, or something like that. 10 little stars equals one big star. Quests start at half a star.
A huge difference between quests in Dungeon Quest and other games though is that the quests are dynamic. Once a pack of wolves is gone, it's gone. It might come back if another pack moves into the area, but unlike other games there isn't such a thing as a "monster spawner." That said, there is still a huge number of monsters. The world is set up to spread people across thousands of starting areas, each one different from the others, and the area in between is completely full of monsters. It would be sort of like trying to get rid of all the mosquitoes in the Everglades. With a flyswatter.
And hunt quests are just one type of quest. I mean, this entire building is full of quests. The ones on the wall are only a small portion of what is available. Yet somehow every single one is realistic. They come from NPC's who have real needs - pelts, fangs, and claws from wolves for use by different leathersmiths and armorsmiths around the city. Requests for herbal ingredients for making potions. Escort quests to cities near and far. Exploration and information quests, even finding a lost cat and helping with building excavation.
Apparently the adventurer's guild administers all the types of quests you'd expect in any kind of game.
I'm a solo wand user, so I'm looking for a quest for a mob that doesn't swarm and moves slower than I can run. That way I can focus on one mob at a time and safely do damage at a distance.
Searching................
Wolves travel in packs. Giant frogs can probably jump pretty far. Snakes are probably going to be found deep in a forest.
There's one.
I pick up a piece of paper. A single red star is stamped on the lower left corner. The objective is an uncommon mob called the kokoko - a fat, caterpillar-type creature that can devastate the orchards and fields outside of town. It's kokoko hatching season for the next few weeks. It may not move any faster than walking speed, but a single kokoko can devour an entire tree in minutes, and eat anything else as fast as it moves. It's a full star simply because the mob has high HP, regenerates as it eats, and has thick skin that makes it pretty much immune to physical damage. And the failure penalty is pretty steep. The job is watching an area in the orchards outside town and killing at least 5 kokokos - with rewards for any beyond that. Reward is 50 copper - the equivalent of $50 - and 10 pieces of fruit, with 10 copper for each additional kokoko. Cost of failure is 20 copper each for killing less than 5. Ouch!
All that means it's the perfect quest for wand training.
I pull up my status screen and confirm what I saw earlier today.
---
Name: Koji
Proficiency: Beginner Wand
Level: 2 (+1)
HP: 10
MP: 100
STR: 1
AGI: 3
DEX: 4
END: 2 (+1)
INT: 99
WIS: 9
CHA: 6
PER: 3
LUC: 5
Skills/Spells: Spark
---
Earlier today, I got my first adaptive stat. I also leveled up from level 1 to level 2. I haven't told Gabe yet. I don't have the heart since I'm pretty sure he hasn't gotten one yet. My endurance rose from 1 to 2, and the difference has been pretty great. I mean I'm still definitely a wimp. In real life, I run endurance races, so I'm expecting my agility, strength, and endurance to all rise. My play style is to start as a glass cannon - have the strongest spells and enough mana to cast whatever I want - and eventually develop into a hit-and-run type caster. Fast enough to not get left behind if I have to run away.
I accept the quest at one of the self-service kiosks and make my way out of the city to the orchards.
The orchards on the location cover a decently large area. Kokoko eggs hatch underground, but they are always laid in open fields near orchards for some reason. Once the enormous hungry caterpillars have emerged, they make a beeline to the nearest area of greenery, leaving a three-foot swath of upturned dirt as they go. By jogging quickly back and forth along the perimeter I should be able to see them, and hopefully defeat them, before they get to the trees. I start at the spot closest to the city walls, and break into a light jog.
Run everywhere. It has never failed me - in life or in Dungeon Quest.
---
About my brother:
My brother is literally crazy. As far as gamers go, he's actually pretty skilled. I used to watch him play games when I was a kid, even going so far as to convince our mom to give *him* my allotted computer time so I could watch him beat a boss or solve a puzzle for me.
Something changed somewhere though, and his approach to games stopped being about games and got a whole lot more... weird.
I get it. He's explained it to me a dozen times, and I've heard the explanation given to other people enough that I pretty much know it by heart. Games to him are a part of real life. They aren't a place where you "do something different" - they're a place where you "explore yourself in a different environment."
Hence why he's a pacifist. In real life, he wouldn't kill a bug - he catches them and takes them outside.
Some people in the past have taken offense to how he plays games... which, for a while, meant that he didn't play anything at all. People seem to think he's got a social agenda.
And maybe he does.
But either way I play how I want. He plays how he wants.
And I still ask him about puzzles.