Early the next day the guard was still there waiting for me, and unfortunately only Matilda, to walk down to the basement cells, his legs were a bit shaky, and it appeared he relieved himself where he stood. The NPCs definitely have basic instincts, though if they are in some sort of action than their physiological needs are ignored or put on hold.
“I’d like to pay bail for Reicat, please.”
*ching*
80,000 poorer, including 2,000 at the gate…
“I’ll go collect the prisoner now, please wait here,” the guard said, twitching.
Moments later I could hear repeated thudding from below, until it became stomping, and finally Catherine stood before me, her hair frizzled, her rag-overall a mess, and I pinched my nose at the god-awful smell that emanated from her. She approached me with clenched fists, if her previous display of strength was anything to go by, I did not want to get whacked by her.
“Wait! Catherine wait! Don’t do anything that might land you back in jail!” That managed to stop her from physically assaulting me but not verbally…
How long can someone be in denial for? Like, if I was back home, before any of this had happened, and I was suddenly sent to Lolly Pop Land, full of candied rainbows and edible jelly monsters, would I believe it to be reality if someone told me it was… probably not. Catherine continued to yell at me all the way from the Barracks Jail cells to the inn, where she promptly rented a room, with my money, and my world returned to peace and quiet.
All’s well, that ends well, right? I slumped down at one of the bench-tables. I had over 90k and now I have only like 8k… It’s more than I started with, but the Grocer was now out of a key ingredient that I needed to make the Tuna Sushi, which means I’ve lost the ability to make easy money.
The Lord Mayor’s mercenaries sat around the cafeteria, no doubt to keep an eye on me. Sigh.
My insides were beginning to eat themselves, and I knew if I wanted to produce anything worthwhile today, I would need to produce breakfast. I sat at the bar, without needing to hail the cat-girl down, she frolicked over all on her own. “Aww hello, miau!”
My cheeks flushed uncontrollably, there was something just so indescribably cute about the cat-girl, it was a little annoying to have my good senses taken away like that. “Hi, can I, err, see your chest… I-err-mean-the-menu. The. Menu.” Gods I’m useless around pretty girls…
The menu appeared.
What the hell!!! The tuna sashimi is like 10 times more expensive! Got screwed over hardcore. The other prices had changed a little, still exorbitantly high, at least compared to my current funds, but wait… what’s that?
It obviously never crossed mind earlier because I must have closed the menu down before I accidently bought anything, but now I could see it, down the very bottom of the list, there were more recipes. With more recipes comes more income, the question was, which recipes should I buy? Screw it.
*ching*
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I transferred the money for all of the recipes. From memory the Green Grocer had ‘Salt’ for sale, guess that makes that decision easy.
Recipe: Pickled Herring
A deep-sea fish brined in vinegar and dill
Ingredients: Herring, Vinegar, Dill
Recipe: Salt Preserved Sardine
A tiny fish salted and dried in the sun for hours
Ingredients: Sardine, Salt
Recipe: Tomato Juice
Tomatoes squeezed until all the liquid has been drained into a bottle
Ingredients: Empty Bottle, 4xTomatoes
There wasn’t anyone that sold bottles from memory, though I wasn’t really looking out for it. What else could I do? I still hadn’t tried cartography, though there didn’t seem to be any real point to that, I did already have a map of the town, and it wasn’t like I was going to explore the surrounding area any time soon.
There were the kitten-kids over on [Bright End], which I was certain was a quest I pre-completed before getting it, like the temple of the ancients, so probably worth going to pick up the experience points and whatever else.
Alrighty then, guess I’ll stop by the Grocer, pick up some salt, and then I’ll go see the siblings just outside the main town.
It was still early, and I knew Catherine probably wouldn’t rouse for most of the day…
Maybe I should try and find her something as way of apology?
I left the inn and made my way down the main street. The sun was climbing and graced the market place with her light as NPCs slowly made their way from their residences to the market stalls to prepare for another day of standing around waiting for player characters that will never come, except for me, of course. And, wait I did, but no one ever came to the grocery stall, or the fish stall for that matter, in fact several stalls were un-manned. Weird, I wonder what is going on??? Maybe their pathways were screwed up and they were stuck behind a door or fence and couldn’t navigate here. Okay, whatever, I’ll go see the cat siblings and hopefully by the time I’m back, they’ve managed to find their way to the market.
Two storey houses with modest wooden doors and shuttered windows lined the street from the market place, I craned my neck noting the alleyway to my right led to the General store and the Magic Item shop. Yeaah, no point going down there right now. The residential district continued all the way to two large thick wooden doors that sat under a stone archway.
The guard by the side waved me through, “Be careful [Tomb Raider], Mad Sheep and Blue Slimes roam the areas beyond this gate, they’ll attack anything that comes too close!”
“Ahh, thanks.”
Through the gate, homely farm houses faced out to the street for a few hundred metres. NPC children frolicked on the dirt path and NPC farmers tilled the land behind them.
The map of Dagon in my personal map directory had updated with a map pin of Armara and Mello’s Home, which was situated off the main path of Bright End.
As I walked there I passed a mixed group of cat and human kids playing some volley ball like game but without hands. Each side had four players each, one side would start off kicking the ball over a line in the dirt, then a cat-kid on the other side performed an exotic from-behind scorpion-like, how they knew where the ball was behind them and being able to accurately hit it, was amazing, I mean, if this was still a game, computer coding could explain it all, but it’s not anymore, is it? Too focused in on my own thoughts, I didn’t realise the ball had been kicked my way until it was under my nose.
A mischievous looking cat-boy, sporting a worn-out grey bandana, called out to me, “Mister, Mister, kick it back!”
It was a small ball, maybe half the size of an ordinary soccer ball. There eager little faces were pleading with me to join them, a cue for a mini-quest perhaps, though I wondered what it would be like to play with NPCs, like really play a game of ball, would that help awaken them, maybe next time. I kicked the ball back and continued on to the marker.
Ordinarily, in game, I and every other player would just barge into people’s homes, but it seemed rude now, even though they’re just NPCs, though were they still just NPCs?
I knocked on the door, but no one answered, only then did I enter. A fire pit sat at the centre of the main room, and hard mud walls enclosed the space, the roof was thatched with straw or something, but otherwise the house was quite bare. There was a large bed rolled on the ground in the only other connecting room with two cat-children laying on it, and there were a few earthen bowls and vases strewn, seemingly randomly, about the place. A cat-woman sat on a mat by the fire, thatching a basket out of straw. The same cat-woman from outside the Frog’s Pond.
“Hi there?” I eventually said.
She looked up at me and almost dropped her basket, “Oh thank Lilith! May her holy light forever shine upon you! You have brought my children safely back to me, there is nothing I can do to ever repay. Please accept this as a small token of my appreciation.”
Congratulations, you have completed the quest ‘Weight of the Truth I’.
You have been rewarded with 100 EXP.
You have been rewarded with a ‘Bottle of Melon Juice’.
You have gained +50 disposition with Minira.
The cost of completing the quest was way higher than the rewards, but it did feel nice to reunite a separated family. The kids got up from their slumber and made their way over.
“Oh, Mister [Tomb Raider]! You came to visit us?” they said, jumping up and down.
“Umm, yeah, I sure did.”
“Oh, you want to know why we were locked up in the first place, meow?”
I didn’t ask… but sure…