The proprietor looked up at their entrance.

"Welcome to Basel's Weapons Emporium."

As Rick's eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the shop was much smaller than the inn had been, and mostly bare. A small display counter lined the back of the room, with a bored-looking Rork proprietor behind it. He was starting to sense a theme. Bare shelves, empty rooms, bored NPC – no, NCP. He needed to keep that straight in his head. Gambit headed for the counter while Daniel peered around at the walls and windows.

Rick followed and looked over Gambit's shoulder. A variety of shiny but simple weapons lined the case: a one-handed axe, a short dagger, and a longer blade that might have been a short sword, and then one that was definitely a sword. He inspected and confirmed they were called “Short sword” and “one-handed long sword” respectively.

At the end of the cabinet was a weapon that looked like a museum piece. It was a sword, or had been once, and the description still claimed it was one. [Masterwork short sword. Durability, one of ten. Damage 2 times Strength. Cost, 100 gold.]

All the other weapons in the cabinet were very basic and cheap. The dagger cost one silver and the short sword, three. This trophy was clearly one of those overpriced weapons he’d expect to see in a starting zone, there to taunt the new players with the wonders they might achieve later in the game. It generally wasn't a very good value, even if anyone had been able to afford it. Which no one in the newbie zone ever was able to.

Gambit peered at the dagger. "So, how much damage does this one do?"

Rick almost pointed out that he could just inspect it himself, but something in Gambit's tone stopped him. The proprietor eagerly answered the question. “It deals 2-4 damage per hit.”

"Hmm, interesting.” Gambit nodded his head. Rick realized it was an act. He wasn't sure what Gambit was getting at, so he stayed silent and watched. "And what about this one?" Gambit indicated the long sword.

"Oh, good choice, good choice! It does 5-8 damage but has a slower swing speed, naturally. Only two silver!"

"Yes, very nice. What about this one down here?” Gambit pointed to the rusty wreck of a masterwork sword.

“Ah, yes, that one’s been here a while."

“It looks old." Gambit stroked his short beard as he made a pretense of studying the weapon. "Is this price correct? The weapon looks to be in poor condition."

The proprietor seemed embarrassed. He crossed his lower set of arms and scratched his head with his upper right hand. "Yes, well, it has been here a while."

"Why don't you replace it with a better weapon?"

The shopkeeper shifted from one foot to the other. "Well, until I sell it, I can't really do that."

"Oh? What happens when you sell it?" Gambit asked.

Rick held his tongue. This was all an elaborate scheme. Fortunately, Daniel was still busy looking around and not interfering.

"Once it sells, another one appears to take its place."

"You mean no one actually makes these weapons? They're just automatically given to you by the system?"

The proprietor nodded. "Exactly."

"The price, does the system set that?"

The proprietor's tone became wary. "Yes."

"I don't suppose you could give me a better price?"

The proprietor shook his head. "Oh, no, definitely not. Only people with the highest reputation with the Rork Remnant and who have a..." He looked at the door behind him and out the entrance to the front, as if checking to see anyone was listening, and then leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Only those with very high charisma."

Gambit nodded while Rick double-checked his own stat sheet. "Oh, yes, charisma. I notice on my stat sheet I don't have any charisma. Is that a hidden trait?"

Now the proprietor looked embarrassed again. "Well, actually, that’s been changed. We've been here a very long time, you see, and the System was updated just recently when the Explorer probe came back. The new System doesn't have any charisma."

Gambit cocked his head to one side. "So how will anyone ever buy this sword?"

The proprietor shook his head sadly. "Oh, no one in this zone is likely to have enough gold."

"Isn't it embarrassing to have such a rusty and pathetic-looking weapon in your display case?" Gambit's tone was full of sympathy, and the proprietor nodded sadly.

"Yes, but there's no hope of me getting rid of it."

Now Gambit looked confused. "Why not? What could be simpler? You'd have to just merely lower the price and let some poor fool take it off your hands. Of course, they’d have to overlook the fact it’s of no value whatsoever."

"What?" The proprietor was momentarily indignant. "Why, this is a masterwork!" He looked down at the weapon, and then back at Gambit, embarrassment all over his rocky face. "I suppose it does look rather shabby, doesn't it?"

"Yes, and with one durability, it's likely to break the first time someone even picks it up."

The proprietor sighed. "Probably."

Gambit leaned forward. "Look here, how about I do you a favor?" He took off his headband. "I'll give you this brand-newly-crafted headband. Just a little something that some newbie might want, for any price you name. I'll give you this for free, and I'll take this shoddy sword off your hand for, let's say, one copper. We have to have the price be something, don't we? And how about I sell you these headbands for the low price of just one copper, and then you sell me this beat-up old sword for one copper?"

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"I don't know." The proprietor seemed confused. He looked at it again. "This doesn't seem like a very good deal for you."

Gambit shrugged. "I just thought you could use a break."

"What are you going to do with that ruined sword?" Rick asked as they left the store a few minutes later.

"I have a few ideas. It'll depend on what this game system allows."

"Is that bartering a normal thing for these kinds of games?" Daniel asked as he trailed them out of the shop.

Rick looked at Gambit quizzically. The Mongolian was grinning. "No, not like that. I already had points into Negotiate a Deal. Kind of a lot of them, actually. That exchange just gave me ten more."

Rick stopped cold. "Wait. You're saying that little deal-making got you ten skill points?"

Gambit was nodding. "Yeah, all through that exchange, they just kept popping up. And then I got four more at the end when he finally agreed."

Possibilities whirled through Rick's mind about what this meant for the game system. He had known it would give you skill ups for using skills you already had. He had gotten several points in dodge from the fights so far and a couple in unarmed combat. There were sub-skills for punching and kicking, and he'd gotten points in those too. His little stunt with the lizard had given him a point in improvised weapons. But ten, all for one thing? It was incredible. "How did you start off with skills in deal-making anyway?"

"Oh, kids in Ulaanbaatar learn that stuff early on. We're always selling merchandise to tourists. Authentic Mongolian crafts made in China, bought on the internet, and sold back to Chinese tourists at twice the price. Or American and European tourists at four times the price."

"I really don't get it," Daniel sounded confused. "What does this all mean?"

"Have you pulled up the skills page?" Rick asked.

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, just a bunch of numbers about silly crap like walking and breathing."

"That keeps track of skills that you already had or skills that you learn here. Doing something hard or interesting with them can make them go up.”

"I did see one pop up during the fight." Daniel frowned. “I forget what for, though.”

"There you go then," Rick said. "Whatever you want to get better at, start using it anytime you can, even if it seems pointless."

Daniel looked from Rick to Gambit and back. "So if I want to get better at haggling with vendors, I'm going to have to use my skills."

Gambit grinned. "You just have to try. Never know what you can accomplish. Even if you fail, you might get a point or two. But I call dibs on the vendors. I'm going to haggle on everything we come across from here on out."

They continued exploring the town, coming across two skill trainers, but they didn't have the money. The lowest tier of skills cost one silver and all the others cost even more.

When they were back outside after checking with a basket weaving trainer, Gambit asked, "Have you seen this fatigue bar?"

Rick nodded. "Yeah, I pulled it up in my interface earlier. It looks like we have to sleep eventually. Mine's not even half full yet."

"Mine's only a quarter full." Daniel said. For all his inexperience, Daniel was the most fit of the three, even if Rick and Gambit's torn jumpsuits made them look more tough.

"Well, we've hit all the stores," Rick said. "Now what?"

Gambit jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "A few doors back I saw something interesting. In that big flat stretch, the wall was a notice board."

"Oh yeah, I saw the markings," Daniel said.

Rick kicked himself mentally for not inspecting every square inch of the place.

"Alright, let's go check it out."

The notice board was a stretch of rock wall, three meters across and two high, covered in intricate pictographs stained onto the wall in almost the same shade. If you weren't looking for it, you could go right on past, like Rick had done earlier. When he inspected it, it exploded into a whole new interface.

[Quest Board.]

There were several categories. [Available quests.] [Completed quests.] [Quest History.] [Submit new quest.] [Want ads.]

The available quests looked interesting, but it was the want ads that caught his eye. Rick selected those and a list popped up. Right at the top in bold letters: [Game guides available.]

Rick immediately opened that one. Text appeared. [New to adventuring? Need advice on class or skills? System assigned game guides are available. Simply accept this ad and you will be paired with a guide appropriate to your skills. One guide per party. Void where prohibited. Not available in Tau Ceti or Sirius 5.]

Rick re-read the notice. Either that last bit was a joke or there was really was some connection between other stars and planets. Or perhaps there was a town in the game called Tau Ceti.

He read the listing a third time. There was no indication of what these game guides cost. In fact, the text implied they were free.

Without closing the interface, he spoke to his team. "Hey, did you see this listing for game guides? It looks interesting."

"Yeah, I saw that," Gambit said. "I think we need one. If they're free, that is."

"It's worth a shot, I suppose. If it does cost anything, it's not like we can pay."

"Do games put you in debt if you can't pay?" Daniel asked.

Rick hesitated, his attention hovering just short of selecting "accept" on the game guide notice. He hadn't known any RPG-style games to allow players to go into debt, but… Should he risk it?

"Ah, what the hell," he said, and selected [Accept.]

[Congratulations! You have been paired with a game guide! Your game guide now appears on your minimap. Enjoy, and be sure to heed his wise warnings.]

That was it. Nothing else happened.

“On the minimap, huh?” Gambit said. Apparently the others had gotten the same notification. "Oh yeah, I see him."

”What are all these quests for? Can we do them? They look interesting.” Daniel was apparently browsing a different section of the board.

“Oh, like what?” Rick wanted to rush off and figure out what this game guide was all about, but checking the quests seemed like a good idea.

Daniel was still browsing. "Like there's one here to find someone's lost hammer. That seems interesting.”

"Wait, Daniel,” Rick cautioned. "Don't select anything until we know what the penalties for failing or abandoning them are."

"Oh, do you think they'll be high?" Daniel sounded apologetic.

Rick's stomach twisted. "Did you already select it?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry. I won’t do that again."

Rick went back to the quest interface but didn't see the listing. Of course not. They’d already accepted.

He backed out of the available quests and went to the Quests in Progress tab hiding behind the others.

[The Blacksmith's Lost Hammer. Go see Selenite the blacksmith. He would like to hire someone to find his lost hammer. Notice: Blacksmith training and item repair is unavailable until this quest has been completed.

"Is it okay?" Daniel asked, his voice worried.

"Yeah, it's fine," Rick said. "We would have had to do this one anyway. Look, just don't select any others, alright? Let's go find that game guide before we do anything else."

Gambit grunted and Daniel gave a chagrined acknowledgement.

Rick turned away from the quest board and the interface automatically closed. There was a blue icon on his mini-map, some distance away.

The location turned out to be difficult for them to reach. They searched around the city and there seemed to be no path to where it indicated, which was much deeper in the rock spire.

Finally, Daniel suggested they ask directions and they all trooped back to the inn.

"Hey,” Rick called the proprietor. “Do you know where we can find game guides? We accepted one at the quest board and I can't seem to get to the spot."

The innkeeper squinted at them with an air of suspicion. "Yeah, well, they're probably at Gravlar's place.” He lowered his voice slightly. "It's a pretty rough establishment, so watch yourself."

[New quest!] The announcement popped up in Rick's vision, startling him.

[Somewhere in town is a seedy establishment. There may be game guides inside. You should investigate. Objective: find the entrance to Gravlar's speakeasy.]

Daniel jerked as the message appeared. "Are you guys seeing this too?"

"Yeah." Rick closed the interface.

There was a new icon in his map that was labeled "Quest Objective" towards the outer edge of the spire. He hoped it would be a door or set of stairs.

Sure enough, it was. The team had checked all of the doors in this section of town for stairs earlier and found none. Now it held a set of stairs going down. “Shall we go?” Rick asked.

“I don’t see any kind of indication how dangerous this quest might be,” Gambit noted. “Stay ready. Let’s go see what’s down there.”