It was still eerily quiet unlike what real markets were, one would normally hear the hum of the crowd and the call of the merchant.
Steering clear of the overpriced armour and weapon stalls, I made my way to the fruit and vegetable stalls first. The vegetable stall holder had a couple of small bags under his eyes and was slumped shouldered, he straightened up and smiled when he saw me.
“Welcome to the Green Grocer!”
He had what looked like some lettuce and tomatoes on display, cucumbers too.
“Hey, ahh, do you have any rice?” A virtual shop menu appeared in my vision.
“Please, have a look at my stall, I’m sure I have what you need.”
There was a lot more items in his shop menu than there were physically at the stall, but he didn’t have everything I needed but it was good to know where I could find some general ingredients, I got some [Sugar] and moved on. One of the other stalls with some large sacks and ceramic pots had what I was after.
[Rice Vinegar] and [Rice Grains] for 40 and 10 Aurem a piece, [Wasabi] and [Soya Sauce] for a steep 100 and 200 respectively.
Since the menu didn’t tell me or show how many serves an item had, I started with buying one of each of the items. The [Rice Vinegar] came in a ceramic bottle. The [Rice Grains], just like the sugar, came in small sacks. I purchased six of them, if I failed I didn’t want to have to come back. I paid the whooping , hopefully I’d be able to sell some of the extras back. I placed them all in one of my save-the-planet bags, which obviously didn’t save shit, did it?
“Thank you for your patronage!” He returned to pretending to tend to his stall, even though there was clearly nothing to do.
The next stall was lined with fish steaks of various cuts.
"Welcome to Tiny Tim’s!” A big ‘ol shloppy fish monger said, before his menu opened up, he hid his massive gut behind a slimy apron. There was Crabler, Gaian Herring, Dagon Sardines, a few other types of fish and tuna, several different kinds tuna. the cheapest one was albacore at a steep 2,538 aurem.
Tuna was not cheap! Though not surprisingly so, crafting in IFO was notoriously expensive, the Designers fashioned it that way so that players would establish their own economy, a player driven economy. But I’ve already bought the other ingredients, so I can’t back out now, there must be another way. I mustn’t give up, I won’t, I can’t.
None of the other NPCs in the market had fish, it was getting late and the last flickers of sunlight graced the clouds with warm orange and soothing purples. I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders. A break was more than called for and the fountain in the middle of the market made the perfect spot. The fountain had a ceramic edge for a passerby like me to sit at, the basin was quite large and deep, and in the centre a well-carved stone mermaid statue sat blowing kisses or something, where presumably water would shoot from, however nothing was coming out.
I suppose I could have trudged around the city in the dark until I found some alternative fish source, but it wasn’t like in the game where that was more of a light setting, in reality, well this strange game reality, dark alleys and hooded strangers were, well, scary, so a cold shiver ran down my spine and past my crack at every dark shadow and every flicker of light.
The water from my backpack was a welcome reprieve, but out of the corner of my eye I could see that as soon as the last strips of light vacated the sky, all the market NPCs up and left their stalls, as if under some mind control spell. Maybe there was some dark and insidious necromancer or vampire luring them all to their certain doom, and therefore mine too, but as organised as it seemed, no one seemed to share the same exact direction. The fish monger too, had up and shuffled away from the market, too curious to let it be, I decided to follow.
He weaved his way through a southward alleyway, until we reached the dock, the dry dock. No one was on any of the piers, not even Cid, I wonder if he is ok? The boards of the pier creaked under the weight of the fish monger, before he unceremoniously leapt off and down onto a boat. What in Tutankhamun is going on?! It was all just a bit weird, and not something I should be getting involved in, especially if it was some special event.
The fish that Kae Woo stabbed through the eye was still keeled over by the dock building we were playing chasey around.
I had shuffled my inventory and stored the massive tuna before making my way back up the alley to the market square, the alley I was in and the street to the inn were on opposite ends of the empty market space. It was now I realised all the lamps were dark, and only a soft blue light illuminated the area.
Why did I even think of vampires and necromancers, I don’t have enough underwear to soil myself too many times.
I crept slowly through the shadows of the stalls, looking around for any wild movement. There was a faint flicker in the second floor of a building that looked down onto the market place, I shuffled quickly and brushed up against a stall. Strange images of all the worst creatures I had faced in-game filled my mind, they poured out of the windows and roofs tops, strode over to me and tore me limb-from-limb.
Bah! Get a grip. It’s just an NPC, probably going to sleep, or something.
I went to move to the next stall, but something or someone caught me… I swivelled and lurched away simultaneously, the creature became clear, and I had pulled the beast and toppled its contents to the floor.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Oh… please don’t eat me… oh terrible stall table of apples.
It all felt a bit silly now, for no monsters came out of the shadows or demons from the roof tops.
It was just me, Brutus and Matilda.
.
The cafeteria was bustling, drinks were clanking together, and cutlery was banging on plates and bowls. I scanned the crowd but still no sign of Catherine, hopefully she’s just gone to bed already, but I did see Kae Woo and the others that had abandoned me.
Cheap-skates.
The NPCs were repeating their daily scripts… except one odd pair… a fish scaled Finfolk and a short hard shelled Kappa.
“Did you hear princess Victoriya was brutally assassinated by the Beastmen parley?”
“Hyrrendal will sooner rise from the grave before that comes to past!”
“Shh! You want to damn us all?!”
“Huh?! That’s different… oh well.” I shrugged.
Back in the comfort of my room at the inn, it was finally time to get crafty. My equipment boosted my cooking skill by 10 points, taking my effective skill points to 33. Hopefully that would be enough to craft this [Tuna Sushi], which I was gifted the recipe for, but unfortunately did not have the recipe for [Sushi Rice]. Mum was a chef, is… she is a chef! and had shown me how to make sushi rice before.
I went back down into the cafeteria and snuck into the kitchen in the back.
You have entered a Regular Kitchen.
Your Cooking skill has temporarily increased by 5 points.
This is a thing now? So, I wonder if I went into a blacksmith workshop without the skill, would I still get this bonus?
The kitchen looked like a medieval kitchen with a huge stone oven, pots hanging from hooks, and various other utensils scattered about. The place was empty, so with my pot, some water and the rice, I set it over the stove and waited... Nothing happened for a good while. The stone oven fire was but a few coals and embers, and the stove top was barely warm.
Right… this isn’t going anywhere, it’s not like there’s any gas or electricity in this world, well at least not the infrastructure for it.
There were some spare logs neatly piled to the side, I gathered them up and loaded them into the fire place… nothing happened, not even a whiff of smoke.
Strange.
“Interact.” I said and a menu box appeared, allowing me to interact with the kitchen oven, I quickly dragged the ethereal menu logs over, activated it, and the fire magically took.
“Good to know interact works, I wonder if the hand gesture still works.”
I flicked my two fingers up and held for a second and sure enough the same menu appeared, and I could see the duration bar on the logs I put in the oven.
Moments later my rice pot was boiling, and I moved it to a simmer. Though, even if I could make sushi rice, I still had the dilemma of the tuna... I’ve never filleted a tuna before. Either way, I continued with the rice.
The rice started to turn translucent as it cooked; soon after it became soft and fluffy.
“Add a little this and a little that, and…”
You have successfully created… Sushi Rice x6.
Your skill in ‘Cooking’ has increased by 0.1.
Awesome, just like back home, I can still make things without a recipe, as long as it’s an item already known by the system. Although… what happens if I make something that isn’t known by the system. Focus! Focus!
The first thing you need to do to prepare a fish is to descale it, at least that's what mum did, she never really properly explained it to me, but I have seen it a million times.
I pulled the fish out from my inventory and on top of the kitchen bench and gave it an examination.
You have attempted to use [Examine] on [Tuna remains], you are unskilled
[Tuna remains]
Hardiness: 43, Durability: 290
“What was my sword’s stats again?”
Ornamental Sword
DMG: 1, Hardiness: 1, Durability: 1
Level: 1, All Job Classes
A replica sword meant for display only.
“Well, that’s not good.”
“When you have an assignment, don’t focus on it as a whole, break it up into segments, it’ll become a lot less daunting and a lot more manageable that way.” The memory of Mr Harding said.
“I wonder if I can just target one scale?”
I focused and nothing happened for a good while, and then.
[Tuna scale]
Hardiness: 0.2, Durability: 2
“Well… I’ll be damned!”
It was little encumbersome, but I was going to use the [Ornamental Sword] to try slice off the scales.
To start off with I wedged the sword in one of the fish's massive scales and I tried to slice sideways, but instead of cutting the scale off -the whole fish slid across the bench and landed on the tiled floor with an audible slap.
You have attempted to use [Butcher] on [Tuna] remains, you are unskilled
"Ahh Jeepers creepers! Umm, that was unexpected..." And I really need to alter my system notifications.
The fish weighed a tonne, so I cheated again and just moved it via my inventory back on to the kitchen bench...
How the hell am I going to descale this son-of-a-bee?!
Gee Brain? I mean sometimes you are far too sensible, you sure we're of one?
This time I held on to the scale I was going to slice, using my hand as an anchor point, and using the other to side-ways-slice.
My fingers slipped on the slimy scale and the fish once again slid and slapped on to the ground.
"Muthda-effer!"
This is mother-effing war!
Another reset, but this time I had had enough. I jumped up on the bench and stomped on the fish's tail, crouched down and tried again. I wedged my sword into its scale and sliced sideways. The scale held true and I strained against it, my face going red, my arm shaking.
Faark-you!
I put two arms into it and gave it my all, my whole body shook, and I was about to give up until there was a snap and the sword cut through, the momentum carrying me with it and landing me with another thud on the floor. I sat up, breathing hard, sweat dripping onto the tile.
You have attempted to use [Butcher] on [Tuna remains], you are unskilled
You have successfully removed [Tuna scale] – 0.5%
“Alright-alright… we can work with this.”