Why is this happening? Why did that guy do that to everyone? Why? We never did anything to him! Right? Now we’ll never… we’ll never…
Random ethereal screens blocked my vision as the world was spinning, and my guts churning, blaargh, ahh, eew. Something about teleporting didn’t agree with me gastrointestinally.
“Oh… My… God… You just vomited on me!” a blurry figure screamed at me.
I wiped my eyes. “Oh, ah, err! Sorry-sorry, oh-jeez, it was an accident, sorry, I’ll clean that up.”
There was nothing obvious to clean it with, though I did pack a towel. “Um, here,” I said taking all of her in for the first time. She wore a linen shirt that exposed her delicate shoulders, a corset that made her boobs look huge, and a short skirt with stockings.
She removed her vomit stained shoes and threw them. Oww! It hit me in the chest, “What was that for?”
She snatched the bag from me, “Oh-my-god, turn around and close your eyes!!!” she wailed.
Over stimulating thoughts hijacked my mind, oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit, come on, your best friend just turned to stone, and all you can think about is that?! Distract yourself, look at the wall, anything, faark!
The room was made with light coloured timber, the skirting and doorframes were all intricately detailed. There were books on the shelves and maps on the walls and one on a large oak desk with paper weights on it.
Did we die? Were we back on Earth? Wait where are my shoes?! My body was still in one piece, luckily. If I had been a fraction of a second slower, I’m pretty sure we would have been dead. A shiver ran down my spine. On closer inspection of a slotted shelving unit, there were many large scrolls poking out, and on the walls hung several different maps.
We, have, teleported. Perhaps this is a map shop or cartographer’s guild˛ I examined some of the open maps on the desk, there were town maps, regional maps, and dungeon maps. These are maps of IFO. I could see the , and the capital of the region Divinity; Celestia. So, we are in IFO or at least IFO territory. There were also draft notices or rather… quests?
“Are these seriously the only clothes you packed?” she whinged from behind me. She was wearing my woollen jumper. “Did I say you could turn around yet?!” she spat.
A sheathed sword hung by her side, “Did you get that from the cavern?”
The groan she let out was most exaggerated, “This?” she rested her hand on the hilt, squeezing it a few times, “it must have come with my starting class,” she said softly.
“Huh?!” I blurted out.
A door on the other side of the room creaked and swung open. A small well-dressed creature stumbled through.
“Ahh” he squeaked and threw his hands up in front of his mouth, which was identical to what small characters did when they used the surprise emote.
“Who’s there?!” The creature said while awkwardly pushing the door wide. Its head didn’t even reach the height of the door handle. His hairy face locked onto mine. “What are you doing here? How did you get in? I didn’t hear the doorbell!” Looking at the other door there was an old school rustic bell attached to the frame. Maybe this was a shop. I examined him.
Bilbron Nucklestamp.
Demi-Racoon. If you were to fight, it’ll be almost impossible to defeat.
What? That little thing, impossible to defeat?! The thought transferred to my raised eyebrow. I asked, ignoring his confused face.
He stopped on his way to his desk and spun round to me robotically. “Hello there! Welcome to the cartographer’s wing of the Adventurer’s Guild.” He beamed, before slowly resuming trek to his desk.
So, the teleport scroll transported us to an adventurer’s guild?
“Looks like a lot of rain coming soon, best watch out for [Water Slimes].” he spoke as he used a foot stool to climb into the chair behind the desk.
Oh, I almost forgot, our clothes, I suppose we should find some replacements so as not to raise too much attention or suspicion.
“ And would you happen to know where I could acquire some new clothes?” It was strange that we understood each other, was this a mechanic of this new world, more questions that I couldn’t find the answer to.
“Women’s clothes!’ Catherine snapped.
“Oh, what do we have here? A Beginner Sworde .”
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
He didn’t get it, and why would he, he was an NPC. He walked like one, talked like one, and emoted like one. It was like talking to telephone AI, if your responses didn’t fit into a certain predetermined set of accepted values he just wasn’t going to be able to respond.
“Umm, no, I’d like to buy something? Can you show me your trade menu?”
The menu appeared in the air between us like a floating hologram. He had a map of the town for 500 Aurem. It included the important labels, like where the general store was, the temple, and where the adventurer’s guild was.
Wait, Sworder? I haven’t heard that term used before. Errgh whatever, hmm, it seems he is able to pick up on character titles. Anyway, hopefully… the ancient coins pass as currency.
“I’ll take this map, please.”
His eyes fell to the coins in my hand and he slurped up a bit of drool from the corner of his mouth, “This is the first real evidence of the existence of the temple of the ancients!”
“The temple of the ancients…” I whispered lowly and rubbed the images out of the side of my head.
His eyes were glued to the coin. He seemed to be on some sort of quest script, only recognising certain keywords I said.
“Can you, like, hurry this up. I need you to log me out of this game!” Catherine insisted. Oh crap… she still thinks this is a game? The real question is, how is she a Warrior as her real-life self, and God, I can’t be the one to tell her this is all real… I mean come-on!
“Umm.” I handed the little racoon man the coin, and I got a notification in big golden letters.
[Quest Complete]
When I examined it further…?
Congratulations, you have completed the quest ‘Search for the Temple of the Ancients’.
You have been rewarded with [Cartography] skill.
You have been rewarded with [Soul-linked] map technique.
You have been rewarded with 5,000 Aurem.
You have been rewarded with 5,000 EXP.
You have been rewarded with a Map of Propolis Subterranean.
You have been rewarded with a New Title: [Tomb Raider]
There was the once familiar IFO coin sound bite, and the level up sound bite —several times.
Congratulations!!! You have reached level 2
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Health Points
Endurance Points
140/140
56/56
I re-checked my character sheet.
Woah, that was quite a jump, my health and endurance increased but none of my attributes increased, my VIT, MAG and SPR were up but that was from the level one starting city exclusive item I found, and I was getting a whopping +6 MAG, SPR, and CRL from that strange orb. Hmmm, [Cartography], interesting I guess. And what? Where did the [ ] skill come from? There was also an option to change my title, and an option to choose a perk.
The racoon looked at me expectantly.
“Looks like a lot of rain coming soon, best watch out for [Water Slimes].” The little racoon repeated.
Oh right, I probably looked like a right idiot standing there gawking into space. Catherine was tapping her foot excessively and rolling her eyes whenever I glanced her way.
“Hey Catherine, can you try giving these coins to the Racoon, please?”
She looked veritably pissed off, “Are you serious right now?!” She snatched the coins and tried to give them to the Racoon.
“That quest has already been completed,” the Racoon said.
Err, what?! Is this a bug or something? Quests can’t seriously be one-offs…
“…is there something else I can help you with?”
“Looks like a lot of rain coming soon, best watch out for [Water Slimes].”
“Mhmm… here is the five coins for the town map.”
He shook his head, “I’m sorry, I cannot accept this currency.”
Catherine whacked her hands on to her hips and pouted, I feel like she was trying to communicate something to me, but I wasn’t sure what it was, so I ignored it.
Ok then! The coins he just awarded me, were now listed in a sub-section of my inventory, I moved the dial to 5 and withdrew the coins before handing them over.
“Thank you [Tomb Raider].”
You have gained a map of ‘Dagon’.
Right, so we’re in Dagon, I had heard of it but hadn’t visited it yet as it was released in the new update, a neutral town.
Would you like to download the map of ‘Dagon’, to your personal map?
Yes/No
Ooh, that sounds good, yes please, let’s do that. The map disintegrated.
Map of ‘Dagon’ has been added to your personal map.
“Great, would you happen to also have any clothes for sale too?”
The little racoon tilted and scratched his head.
“…?”
“Dooo-youuuu-havvvvee-any-clothesss-for-saleeee?!”
He looked over his desk at us. “Ahh, yes, we have Adventurer’s Outfits.”
Catherine was about ready to explode.
“They’re not in your shop menu, umm, how do we get an Adventurer’s Outfit?” I quickly asked
“Only members of the Adventurer’s Guild can acquire an Adventurer’s Outfit.”
This was starting to get tedious. “Okay… How do we join the Adventurer’s Guild?”
He clasped his hands together. “If you want to join the Adventurer’s Guild, you will need to defeat 5 slimes.” That was the same quest in the starting city.
You have been offered the quest ‘Adventurer’s Initiation’.
[Accept / Reject]
Yes, accept, whatever.
The quest ‘Adventurer’s Initiation’ has been added to your quest log.
He smiled at me. “Good luck out there, rookie, those slimes can be a handful!” He sounded so scripted, and as if that was the end of the conversation, but I had more questions, like, how to change job class but Catherine was pouting and stamping her feet.
Oh jeez, what am I going to do?