As he walked out of the dormitory building Coney found that he could finally see the full extent of the Abby compound. It was larger than he had expected. It was nearly a square mile of land, with a variety of buildings, though many of them seemed to be in great disrepair. Those buildings were crumbling, and some had fallen down completely.

The entrance was to his left, a large gate in a long twenty foot wall that enclosed the entire compound. He couldn’t quite tell from here, but it seemed the wall was several feet thick, enough that it might be able to hold against a minor siege. From the entrance led a path which led directly to a central square. The square was flanked by two buildings, both the dormitory he was in now and a tall building he quickly recognized as the one he’d come in the previous day.

In the center of the area was an old but extremely well taken care of building. Made of brown stone that was nearly midnight black and roughly cut, made into small stones rather than the precise stone slabs of both the buildings he’d been in, it was a large building with a bell tower. Instinctively Coney recognised it as a church, though he wasn’t sure if that would be what it was called. The other side of the church from the entrance was the much more spaced out area inside the walls, taken up by the fallen buildings and with several gardens.

“That must be where I’m going.” Coney said with a slight grin. He hoped there was fresh food there, the freshest of vegetables were always good in his experience. Walking down the path he was impressed with the sise of the garden, it was closer to a full field in his opinion, but he kept it to himself.

As he got closer he saw that there were several people working the fields. He realized that most of them were beast-folk like himself, though their fur looked a sight worse than his own. His avatar’s fur was soft and fluffy, but many of them had tangled fur that made them look rough and even animalistic. Still, there were also several humanoids, it’s just that these were the first beast folk he’d seen since booting up the game. It was nice to see a part of himself in them, though all of them were much stronger than him.

While he was looking at one tiger's abs a little too long a human stood up. He was carrying a hoe, and turning his eyes Coney realized it was the old man he’d met yesterday. The older of the masters, Isidore. “Ah, hello.” The man said, his voice soft but with a mischievous smile hidden behind it, one that was easily audible.

“Hello master Isidore, I was told I needed to see you.” Coney said with a grin. He decided now would be a good time to try out scanning again.

Isidore - Nephalim/Monk

Well Coney was floored. He had been expecting a human, but the master wasn’t at that. He was something altogether else. If he remembered right it was one of the stranger things from Christian myths, the offspring of an angel and a human. It was somewhat like a demigod, but with much less divine favor.

“Yes, I was hopping to see you.” The old man smiled coyly. “I mean,you were unfortunate enough to fall down into the Undercroft. But, of course, I have to thank you for your ability… despite how you were not meant to be in that building in the first place.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Coney sighed. “So… punishment again?”

“No, I’m sure you’ve had quite enough of that.” Isidore said. “Aloysius is a fiend when it comes to punishments, being zealous when it comes to their application. I saw that he done knackered you out last night, had to carry you to bed my own self.”

“That was you?” COney asked. Honestly, if he had heard this statement an hour ago he’d have assumed the old man had gotten help, but now that he saw him with his shirt off he realized he was buff. Isidore was ripped, the kind of ripped that only seemed to happen when someone extremely fortunate focused on it.

“Yes it was, and I’m really glad you’re okay. When I found you, I couldn’t get you to wake up no matter what you did. The healer said you were fine, it was just kind of scary in a lot of ways.” That explained to coney how he’d moved. He supposed this was a sign he didn’t disappear, this didn’t sound like a story he was being fed but instead the truth on some level. This was an amazing level of realism… that would piss a lot of players off.

Hard Core players would get mad when they couldn’t easily guard their stuff. Casual players would feel weird when weeks at a time passed for their character just because they were busy with other things in their life. All of them would complain that their not despawning while AFK was totally unfair, and on a lower level of his heart Coney knew he agreed.

“Well, I suppose that’s true.” He said with a smile. “In that case, would you mind doing me a favor?”

“What kind of favor?” The older man was suspicious, he seemed to be completely wearing when the word favor was uttered. Perhaps, Coney thought, he’d spent so much time here that it was second nature for him to be suspicious of younger folks asking him for things.

“Well, I think It’s easy for me to say, but I don’t know what to do around here.” Coney frowned. “I have a nagging feeling that I’m supposed to do something, supposed to do tasks, but at the moment I have no clue what they might be.”

“Oh, is that all?” The old man looked a lot more calm. “You are right. As a novice you must do at least one task for Brownstone Abby to keep it running. If you wish, today you can help me.”

“How can I do that?” Coney asked, biting his lip.

“Simple. I need someone to gather in the North field.” He gestured away from the entrance to one of the more secluded fields. “We have carrots, and Master Lawrence is making soup tonight. He wants fresh carrots, so that means we provide them.”

“What does Lawrence do anyway?”

“Oh, Lawrence is the Abby cook. He can cook nearly anything, and has a wide variety of knowledge. He came to his calling late in life, and some say he’s here to stay away from his old family, but he’s a nice man under everything else.”

“Oh, so if I gather the carrots I can see Lawrence? He wants to see me as well, and perhaps if I have ingredients in hand He won’t be so mad at me.”

“You can certainly try. If it works, maybe I’ll have more workers.”

Quest Added: Carrot Pleaser - Bring 60 or more carrots to Lawrence in the kitchen. Reward - Lawrence disposition.

After accepting, Coney nodded and went to the north field. There he picked for an hour and all he had to show for it was thirty carrots. Maybe he was taking too many breaks, maybe he needed too much water being hot in all his fur, or maybe it was just way harder than he thought it was. But in the end he had to go for two more hours before he gathered about a hundred into a basket bundle.

Carrying the basket, which was about the limit to what he could carry, of dirt covered carrots he walked directly back to the dormitory. “Where’s the kitchen?” He asked one of the workers, a weary looking deer man, who silently pointed at a side entrance.