Upon exiting the misty portal 2 rather unexpected things happened to Eric, the first was a message the same grandfatherly voice from the tutorial reading it out

“You have entered a safe zone, all offensive spells / abilities will automatically be shut off”

Before the voice had finished talking the blue dot in the corner of his vision stopped glowing, his mace and shield diapering in a small puff of smoke.

“AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH” the high pitched squealing made him jump and he immediately turned towards whatever made the sound, standing in front of him was an angry looking old lady with a mop in her hands.

“What are you doing in my close?”

“I…” he turned towards he area he had entered from and saw a tiny closet full of brushes, buckets, dusters and other various cleaning items.

“I….” He tried to speak again but was immediately cut off when the wet end of her mop slapped against the side of his face.

“Get out…..out…..out….out” the old ladies face was bright red at this point every word she spoke becoming louder and higher pitched until she was screaming.

Not knowing what else to do Eric raised his arm to try and block the mop as he moved towards what he hoped was the exit, the wet mop slapping against the side of his head as he went.

When he reached the front door he stumbled out onto the street and turned to see the old lady stood in her doorway still shaking the mop at him.

“Ruddy players, think you can just break into random NPC homes and steal whatever is in their personal chests, if I catch you here again I will be calling the guards”. With that final declaration she disappeared into her home slamming the door behind her.

Trying to regain his bearings Eric looked round and noticed he was in the middle of a street full of old style stone houses, many with thatched roofs others had flat concreted tops with ladders at the side leading up to them. Thankfully no one seemed to have been nearby to witness what had just happened so he simply chose a direction and started walking down the street doing his best “nothing happened” act.

Somewhere along his travels he came across a market place, it was mostly normal, various wooden stalls selling a range of goods, some looked like permanent fixtures others looked like individual traveling carts, while others appeared to be merchant groups with hired guards eying everyone with equal suspicion with one hand resting on the handle of their weapon. The thing that wasn’t normal was several of the people had green skin with prominent tusks sticking out the corners of their mouths, others looked like lions with mains and various other “humanoid” animals walking on two legs reaching sizes of up to 8ft tall. Most within the crowd were human so he didn’t feel too out of place yet was still in awe of the variation between the people within the market.

A pair of humans emerged from the crowd carrying clipboards with a series of leaflets in their pockets, they were both attractive looking humans, one male the other female, dressed in simple yet comfortable clothing. Yet in spite of their apparent charm something about them seemed a little off to Eric and he wasn’t sure if he fully trusted whatever it was they obviously wanted to sell him.

“You look a little lost there friend” the guy said with a wide smile on his face almost immediately after he stopped talking the woman started

“Perhaps we can help you find your way?”

“We aim to help a diverse group of people every day”

“We also seek to include everyone in our vision of the future”

“A future where equity has been brought into the land”

“And everything is put in its proper place”

Then they both finished at the same time “To ensure stability in our collective futures”

An awkward silence followed their seemingly well practiced monologue, Eric scratched the back of his head unsure of what else to say he responded with “Sounds….nice, I wish you luck with that” he moved to walk away but diversity stepped in front of him holding up a hand “Before you go, perhaps we can help each other”

“How?”

“First things first introductions, I am diversity”

“And I am inclusivity, we are the children of Equity”

“Who was unfairly banished from these lands by sinister oppressive forces”

“We seek to bring him back so that he might fight against the constant oppression of the underclasses”

“As a player you get to choose the story, all you have to do is sign here” Diversity showed him his clipboard and pointed at it.

“Your signature will allow us to get started, then through either your actions or inactions you can enable us to begin our good work”

“In other words you get to be a part of our utopia by doing as much or as little as you like”

Eric tried to step away but once again diversity moved in front of him holding his clipboard and pen closer to him, Inclusivity hugged his arm and gently rubbed her cheek against his shoulder

“Come on…do it for me?” her radiant smile beamed at him like the dazzling brightness of a sun jumping out unexpectedly from behind a building. He turned to face Diversity whose smile somehow beamed with equal radiance, without thinking or even knowing what he was doing he grabbed the pen and signed on the dotted line. There was a rumble in the sky and for a small fraction of a second everything was plunged into darkness before being restored as if nothing had happened. Blinking his eyes Eric looked round, Diversity and Inclusivity were nowhere to be seen and in their place was a smiling caramel skinned young woman

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“Hi, my name is Pamala Yaris, are you ok? You look a little lost”

“Yeah, lets just say I am not from around here”

“Ooo, me neither, I am from Dawnstar a small village to the east, I hold a very important position there”

Still somewhat confused by previous events Eric was only half listening yet decided to engage in the hopes that he could recenter himself.

“Oh? And what position would that be?”

“I am the village idiot” she stood up straighter at that announcement and her smile widened

“Every village needs one, and I am it for Dawnstar” she lightly punched her chest at that pronouncement.

The response only left Eric even more confused about things

“Thats nice, so where are we now?”

Pamala just looked at him for a second, then lightly punched his arm and started laughing

“Ah good one, thats really funny”

She continued to laugh and once again the now familiar feelings of discomfort started to seep in, after some time Pamala looked at him and asked “Why aren’t you laughing?….Oh wait…..oh no I have done it again, you really are lost aren’t you? Oh you poor thing”

She stepped forward pulling him into a tight hug

“Thats alright, easy mistake to make”

Eric responded lightly tapping her shoulder with one arm while the other hung loosely at his side.

“No its not alright, I am a proud representative of Dawnstar, and as such it is my duty to fix my mistake and help you find your way” she hugged him tighter squashing her face into his chest as she spoke muffling the sound of her voice.

“You are in Daymoon, one of the main trading hubs of the Kingdom of night and day and as a player you should be guided by quests, but you won’t start getting them until you form a party”

She pulled herself away from him leaving a wet patch where her mouth had previously been, she then pointed towards a stall with a sign above it saying PUG services. “Go speak to them and they will help you”, she smiled at him, “good luck with your quests, adventurer I hope to see you in Dawnstar someday”, she hugged him one more time once again rubbing her face against his chest and leaving another wet patch. “Byee” she then ran off and disappeared into the crowded market accidentally knocking into people and apologizing as she went.

Eric stared at her as she went, jumping at the sound of a familiar grandfatherly voice

“You have gained a new quest: Form a party to begin your adventures”

An image of a compass appeared in the top center of his vision pointing towards the PUG services stall. He turned towards them and walked forward.

“I thought you needed a party to get quests” Eric quietly

“System clarification, you gain quests by talking to npcs who define the parameters of the quest, you can choose to reject or accept any quests given. While you do not need a party for this having one allows you to take on bigger challenges to gain bigger rewards, you also gain access to dungeons.”

“Huh” Eric stroked his chin, after thinking about if for a short while he walked towards the PUG stall.

—————

Pamala made her way out of Daymoon and moved towards her home village of Dawnstar. She was skipping merrily along the road when two people stepped out from behind a bush. She looked at them and smiled

“Hi, my name is Pamala, I hate to say it but I don’t really have anything for you to steal…except maybe these”

She reached into a pocket and pulled out a small bag of toffees.

“You might be able to sell them for a coin or two”

The two people simply looked at each other, then back at Pamala

“Oh my dear, we don’t wish to rob you, my name is Diversity”

“And I am Inclusivity, its a pleasure to meet you Pamala”

They offered their hands in turn and Pamala shook them

“Likewise” then they all just stood there smiling at each other, after several minutes had passed Diversity finally broke the silence

“You know, we couldn’t help but notice your impressive role within the village of Dawnstar”

“And how well you carry it out, you make a very good village idiot”

That last statement caused Pamala to blush “Aww thankyou, it isn’t easy, but I do alright”

“Not easy is an understatement I think” Diversity said

“Yes as the appointed idiot of the village it is your job to mess things up”

“And the better you do the job the more annoyed people get at you, its an under appreciated yet necessary roll”

“We truly believe you do it well, as such we would like to offer you a promotion to a place of great importance within our esteemed movement”

Diversity pulled a token out of his pocket and held it in front of Pamala, her eyes widened at the sight of it.

“A job upgrade token?”

Inclusivity responded

“Yes, join us and you will no longer be the idiot of a single village, you will be one of the many esteemed useful idiots of our upcoming organization”

Pamala somehow found a way to widen her eyes even further

“I get to be useful??”