And that is how he convinced Naomi and Bee to use blankets as nets to capture some rabbits and walk their squirming loads back to town. The rabbits claws and teeth shredded the blankets but multiple layers seemed to do the trick of keeping them from being able to do too much damage to their arms.

Bee was a combat machine, her boomerang whistling through the air faster than Andrew could track, often hitting two rabbits each throw. She had to hold back to keep from killing them too quick often using the boomerang to reduce the size of a rabbit swarm before Andrew and Naomi moved in.

While Bee was amazing, Naomi had been no slouch, she had been practicing her footwork and other skills and she always seemed to be standing in exactly the right spot to snag a rabbit or to position them in reach of Andrew’s net. While she worked she sang a pleasant song whose words couldn’t quite catch. A pop up informed Andrew that he had a temporary +2 to teamwork for the duration of the song. Which he figured explained how they all managed to coordinate so well without having practiced together before.

Bee had the strongest arms of the three of them, carrying three of the squirming bundles in her arms. She seemed mostly immune to the rabbits scratches. Naomi explained that Bee has hit herself with her boomerang so many times she was probably immune to slashing damage altogether, Bee just smiled enjoying being able to show off. Naomi and Andrew both only managed one of the squirming bundles each. The worked together to manage the bundles when Andrew asked to stop to pick flowers for his other quest on the way back.

As they handed their loads on the leather-worker the shop-keep put his hand into the squirming pile and the piles flattened out the rabbits disappearing and leaving a pile of shredded cloth with their passing.

A notice popped up informing Andrew that he had completed the quest six times.

“You have six units of rabbit leather. All fees normally associated with this process are waived in the tutorial village. What leather goods would you like me to create?” the leather-worker intoned after all of the squirming bundles stilled.

“How about a pair of hiking boots?” Andrew asked looking down at his unimpressive starter shoes.

The shopkeeper reached under the table and pulled up a set of light hiking boots and thumped them down on the counter in front of Andrew. Andrew curiously looked beneath the table and found it completely empty.

“You have four units of leather remaining.” the shopkeeper intoned.

Andrew reached for the boots and as he picked them up the following prompt popped up.

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Leather Rabbit Boots

Effect: +1 distance traveled

“Huh… they increase travel distance… how the heck does that work?”” Andrew said as he sat on a convenient bench to change out of his starter shoes.

“They are enchanted?! Are quests transferable? And its FREE?!” Naomi asked excitedly, excitement overtaking her normally demure demeanor. “We need to exploit the shit out of this!”.

Andrew slid off the boots he had come into this world in and tried on the new boots “Nice! They fit perfectly”

“I would like a sword belt please!” Naomi continued. Sadly the shop keep didn’t respond. The group looked at each-other in confusion.

“Maybe Andrew has to ask for things because it’s his quest?” Naomi guessed

Andrew sighed and turned to the shopkeeper “Would you accept that these two are my representatives and that I authorize them to both donate animals and collect leather goods on my behalf?” Andrew queried the leather-worker not really expecting it to work.

Before the leather-worker responded Bee snorted and said “Yeah, I am totally this guy’s leather minion.”

Bee’s mirth was cut short as she got the far away look of someone reading a prompt. “Well shit!” she cursed.

Achievement get: Minions! (Leather gathering and Leather goods ordering)

Description: You have minions that may collect leather on your behalf and turn it in for the “Leather Goods (+!) quest.”

Stat Get: Social Cohesion +1

“Did you guys just get an achievement with a... weird stat?” Naomi

“Yes” Andrew and Bee said at almost a same time. “What does that even mean?” The question was kind of hypothetical and none of them felt it deserved further attention.

After an awkward moment Naomi turned to the shopkeeper and again said “I would like a sword belt please” This time the shop keep reached under the counter and pulled out a leather belt with a metal ring affixed to the side. “You have zero units of leather at this time” he said as he handed the belt to Naomi.

“Sweet! It increases my draw speed.” She looked at Bee as she strapped the new belt onto her waist “Yep grinding.” Bee sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I thought rule number one was keep our goals as our sole focus and under no circumstances are we to take on a side quest?” Bee asked as though she was throwing Naomi’s words back at her.

Naomi was unfazed by Bee’s recitation. “This is different! It’s free now but won’t be later! Its a timed event!” Naomi argued.

“Sure, Naomi I see how it is.” Bee relented with mirth in her eyes.

“I wonder why its a speed boost though… because it’s rabbit leather and rabbits are fast?” Naomi postulated.

“I asked the quest board to harvest monster essence, maybe the speed is from rabbit essence in the leather” Andrew guessed.

“So other kinds of animals may give other bonuses…” Naomi mused.

Bee snorted “I’m not carrying a turtle in here Naomi… you can forget that idea…. And all Andrew would have to do to get some kind of monster essence achievement now is eat the leather.”

Andrew blanched “I don’t think my teeth could take that…”

The group split up again shortly after agreeing to meet up again to leave the tutorial zone together. Andrew felt like he had hit another dead end and didn’t need a bunch of leather that made him faster… the boots were nice though. They felt fantastic for running even if they were hiking boots and he seemed to cover more ground than was quite right.

Next stop the Herbalist and her quest reward of “More Quests” … hopefully not all of them would be side quests.