As the start of Royal Road brought hundreds of thousands of players to the forefront of adventure, many users were distressed.

“What is this? A quest to clean your shop, no way!”

“Gah, why can I only find stupid labor quests.”

“Why can’t I get out of the city?”

The cries of complaints from these people rang out around the world, but many veteran RPG gamers were working hard at any quest they found.

“Must make money for a sword by the end of the first week.”

“I have to get fame so I can get better quests.”

“Connections. I must spread my web of connections so I can have some pull in the government.”

The determination felt around the veterans was huge.They earnestly worked as hard as they could to get just one extra point of fame or an extra copper. The competition was cutthroat, and Goliath could feel it.

Goliath was moving fast and accurately. He cleaned like he was possessed. Rushing down the aisles so as not to waste any time. Leaving not a speck of dust on the shelves as he passed. While he was rushing from row to row, his mind was moving just as fast.

I knew there was a catch! I was tricked. he thought. The books had no discernible pattern! He had moved down the aisles, thinking they would be arranged alphabetically by writer or title, but he had seen titles starting with the letter A, next to those starting with Z.The same went for author names.

He sometimes saw a reader sitting at a table, but he would breeze by them, cleaning as he went. The worst part was when he saw Shale walking around, looking at him with sad eyes and assuming he would fail. He had asked her how the books were organized, but she had been dead silent, with Laris glaring at her in deathly silence. He had calculated that it would take him at least an hour to finish the cleaning, and three and a half hours to put all the books in their place, which gave him at least one and a half hours to find out the organization of the books.

Half an hour went by, and he had finished dusting the bookcases. He was breathing heavily, and was leaning against a bookcase.Through his hard work, it had only taken him half the time to clean the library, and having traveled through all the aisles of books, he had learned some things. The first thing he had learned, was that the books were arranged in rows by genre. The second thing he had learned, was that usually, old books were at the far end of the bookcase (relative to the library entrance) and newer books at the the nearest end of the bookcase, but that was not always the case. Finally, he had learned that most of the people coming in were nobles. He had learned this from the crests on their clothing and the quality of their dress.

While Goliath rested, he watched the comings and goings of the nobles, and the occasional user who got thrown out. While watching the nobles, he learned why it was so hard to get into the library. If just anyone were allowed, in they would be able to make connections within the government easier, with easy access to the dwarvish nobles. The fact that he had gotten in here must have been a blessing. Goliath was also a bit confused Why do so many nobles come here?Is it really that common for nobles to come read these books? he thought. Whatever. he thought I’d better hurry up and start trying to find out the mystery of these books, or I won’t be able to do my research.

Standing straighter, he headed back to where the row for History was located. He slowly walked down the row, scanning the books as he went. The books at the nearest end, were titled The History of Jormundgand, The Rise of the Thor Kingdom, and The Origin of Dwarves. The last book seemed more religious than historical really. Anyways he had seen these books before. Not the virtual copies like these were, but on the Royal Road website there were several quotes from these books in some of the lore.

As he headed farther and farther down the row the titles became more and more obscure The History and Culture of Delan, Lands, Lore, and Monsters, and A land of Knights. These books he had never heard of and the lands were also not listed on the Royal Road website. They seem to be ordered by …“grumble”... His stomach seemed to be rebelling against him. Heading to the front door, he saw Shale with a lunchbox, heading for the door as well. She seemed to not notice him as he quickened his pace to get beside her.

“You going to lunch?” he asked her.

No response. It seemed that Laris had ordered her not to speak to him.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I would like to join you,” he said. No response.

Honestly, she could have said something, he thought, as they walked to the park across the square from the Library. As they walked, he looked around the square and was shocked. There were thousands and thousands of people walking around, pointing at things and talking to each other.

"This place is so cool," said a guy with platinum hair. He looked like a bad knockoff of a certain Final Fantasy game villain.

"It looks like these buildings were carved.They are so beautiful," said a girl whose excessively cute features made her look more like a doll than a human.

It wasn't surprising that there were people here, but he hadn't expected so many. Jormundgand was a small city, but on the website, it was said to be a place of knowledge and magic. It was also on the border, but was still connected to the Dwarves’ capital. He had thought he had been smart in choosing this city, and hadn't expected it to be so popular. As they got closer to the park, he tried to speak to Shale again.

“Do you usually come to the park?” he asked.

“…” She was silent.

“Do you really have to not talk to me?” he asked.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“...” More silence.

“If I am going to be the only one talking, this is going to be really boring,” he said.

Unknown to Goliath, a small group of people were watching him.

***

"Hey, look over there, at that guy," said Persona 1, a squat, muscled Dwarf was pointing at a guy walking with a girl.

"What?" said Persona 2, a tall human.

"Look, he’s harassing that girl. He just won’t leave her alone," said Persona 1.

“Yeah, he keeps talking to her, but she looks like she doesn’t want anything to do with him,” said Persona 3, another Dwarf, taller than the first.

“That pisses me off.We should do something,” said Persona 2.

“Yeah. Let’s go stop him, it might even be a quest,” said Persona 1, assuming leadership. They began making their way towards the two figures heading into the park.

***

“Huh?” said Goliath. He felt like they were being followed, a sense created and honed through countless times of avoiding bullies. Looking around, he didn’t see anybody giving particular attention to him. Giving up on the notion that someone would already be after him an hour and a half into the game, he ignored his instincts.

“There are too many people,” he complained to the still silent Shale.

“Maybe we should eat somewhere else?” he asked, as they made their way into the crowded park.

She shook her head and pointed to the small lake where a bench was open, and started heading to it.

“K. Let’s get over there before it gets taken,” he said speeding up and pulling her along by her arm.

***

“Shit, look at him. I think he’s going to do something weird to her. He’s pulling her around,” said Persona 1.

“Let’s hurry up and get him!” yelled Persona 2 & 3, startling the people around them.

***

As Goliath and Shale reached the bench, they got there right before some other people, who seemed to have also wanted to sit on the bench. Goliath took his seat, while the other group made up of three guys just glared at him.

Giving them an victorious smile he said, “Sorry, these seats are taken.”

But the guys took it another way.

***

This bastard thinks he won, thought Persona 1.

I’m gonna kill this bastard, thought Persona 2.

GO DIE, thought Persona 3.

***

Realizing something was wrong, Goliath got a bit worried. If they attacked him, they would probably beat him.

"Why are you so angry, when we got here first?" he asked.

That seemed to make them madder.

"If you want the bench so bad, take it. We can go somewhere else," Goliath said, standing up.

When he got up, the leader of the group, a muscular Dwarf, pushed him back onto the bench.

"Pervert. Why don't you leave the girl over there alone," said Persona 1.

"Yeah, she obviously doesn't want some creep like you dragging her around," said Persona 2.

"Wait.. What? No, it’s not like that," he said panicking, seeing that they had taken this the wrong way.

"Oh, so why isn't she saying anything to you?" said Persona 3.

"She does. Come on Shale, tell them I'm not some pervert," Goliath begged.

Shale looked like she really wanted to speak, but couldn't.

The group of angry men obviously took this as the go ahead, because a punch immediately landed on his stomach.

"Oof!" He groaned.

-Health has decreased by 2

"Shit," he muttered, as a kick hit him in the ribs.

-Health has decreased by 5

Then, he got hit over and over.

-Health is at 10%.

"Get off of him you bastards," he heard a familiar angry yell.

After the person yelled, the assault stopped.

"Shale, bandage him up," he heard the person say.

He attempted to roll over, but a message popped up.

-Damage to joints. Movement decreased by 56.7 percent.

Well, that sucks. he thought.

He felt someone flip him over, and he looked up at Shale.

There were tears in her eyes. She said, "I am so sorry, I couldn't speak. Laris put a silence spell on me."

"Humph," he heard someone behind her. He looked behind her to see Laris glaring keenly at the guys who had been beating him.

"We swear we thought he was a pervert," said Persona 1.

"He looked like he was gonna do weird stuff to that girl," said Persona 2.

"Please don't get the guards," said Persona 3.

Looking back at Shale, he saw that she was crying. "I am sorry. I..I should have stopped them. I am so sorry. You must hate me," she cried.

"Hey, don't worry, I'm fine. This is nothing," he said, moving his hand to her cheek, "See, I am fine, so stop crying."

Shale smiled and hugged him.

-Health decreased by 1

As nice as it was to be hugged by her...“Um, could you hurry up with the bandages?” he asked tentatively.