After her dinner and a luke warm bath. She stepped up to the polished steel mirror. Reaching out she touched her reflection. A green figure with a broad chest with darker pine green freckles greeted her. The half orc reflecting was actually kinda handsome. A bit of a bulbous tipped nose, but it was straight and not pig-like. His black hair fell down to his shoulders, as his pointed ears were almost as long as an elf’s. He had golden brown eyes, more on the citrine side.
The body wasnt well toned and had extra fluff around the arms, chest and stomach. But Janet knew there was a lot of muscle there. Hair ran from just above the navel down blow the towel.
Aside from the basics, scars littered the flesh. Some more recent than others. Like when she bashed into with that morning star. She could see where the spikes had forcefully inserted themselves into her stomach.
There was one across her side just below her ribs. She didnt know where that one came from. There looked to be fire or acid damage on her left shoulder blade.
Hers?
I guess it is my body now. Though it still doesn’t feel right. I’m not a male…
It was scary at how natural it was to start calling this form, this body that belongs to someone else as hers.
Janet sighed.
“First things first, I need to get rid of this five-o’clock scruff going on.” She scratched at her chin and face. “You look kinda dorky,” she gave the reflection a smile. The tusks made it look awkward. “The freckles are a cute touch. I bet if you were born human and in my world, you’d be a nerdy book worm. Large, nerdy book worm.”
And I am talking to my reflection. I’m going insane. Okay, time for bed!
Dressing she forewent the shirt and laid down to sleep. The sounds of the pattering of rain on the tiled roof was a lull into dream land.
She woke in the morning to knocking on the door. Getting up out of the bed she opened the door to a young elf girl, about ten or eleven standing in the hallway with a tray. The tray had some bread with butter, and two hard boiled eggs and what looked like ham.
The elf had light brown hair that was done in two braids that fell down behind her. A creamy tan colored blouse with a black vest corset over top it, and a long dark brown skirt and flat shoes. The elf was looking up at her like she was seeing the stars up close. Brown eyes wide and full of questions.
Janet stepped aside and let her into the room. She walked in and sat the tray down on the table before picking up the tray from the night before. She then rushed back out of the room. Not bothering to say anything. Which, fair, Janet learned that she was possibly the only half-orc that these people have seen.
She closed the door and sat Fang’s breakfast down. She sat down and enjoyed hers. The tea was strong and unsweetened.
She opened up her leveling menu now that she was just relaxing for a bit before she went out to do some shopping.
The list of spells were long, but she wanted something to mend or clean or both, for her clothes. Phionex said there was a mending spell. But without a search bar she had to go through them all manually. Scrolling slowly through the list of thousands.
She finished her food and still didn’t find it. Nor did she see anything that deals with rages. So that must be an Orcish spell the quest was talking about.
Do I want rage? Not really, I would like to keep my head and not get angry for no reason.
She wanted more herbalism, and hunting. That was important. Anatomy was helping her with the cleaning of animals, and then skinning.
Ugh! All my skills are important! I don’t have enough tokens. I need more.
She knew that quests can give them.
Standing up she got dressed for the day without spending any of her tokens just yet. She also got fully dressed, including her armor and cloak. It was drizzling outside still.
Grabbing her bag and the tray with the bowls she exited the room and locked it. Putting the key into the inside pocket of her cloak.
The keeper at the bar looked up went she sat the tray down.
“Thank you, good night?” he asked and moved it to the end where the child elf took it.
“Yes, thank you, I will be out for a bit, but will return,” she said.
The man waved it off. “I serve breakfast and supper, dinner is on you, the bar is closed in the mid day,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said, then looked down. “Come Fang.”
The bar still had players inside, many looking out the large bay windows at the rain like it caused some sort of offence.
Walking for a bit, she stopped near a guard, looking to be on duty just watching the people and making sure everyone was safe.
Stepping up she waited until she was acknowledged. “I am looking for Lesik Moors,” she said.
The guards came more to attention. “Why?” one asked.
“I have a letter,” she said simply and took out the quest item and showed the wax seal on it.
“Official business then,” he then pointed. “Down this main way to the central square, then take the left street from the four main streets, he’s in the marble building with six pillars, two stories.”
“Thank you,” she bowed her head as she left just to be polite.
She followed the instructions, staying with the flow of the people on the streets. The road she was on was filled with housing mostly, there was a couple of small shops, like a small bakery. But nothing she considered a shop that she would be interested in.
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The city square had a large fountain in the center and looked to be a general meeting place and open stall market. Colorful awnings seemed to be well oiled or made of a canvas that was able to redirect the rain into barrels or on the bricked streets. Her head was on a swivel as she tried to look at everything.
One thing she was noticing was there weren’t a lot of player tags out in the streets right now.
How spoiled have we gotten that even in a video game, we refuse to go out in the rain without an umbrella?
She understood what the guard meant as soon as she saw the road lay out. It was like a compass with the main roads being the main directions and the streets being the points between.
She walked down the road and she was in the going between two of the cardinal points. She could tell this was a government road. There were far less people traveling, and the building were beautifully stylized with the marble carved out. A few buildings looked to be places of worship. She might have to visit those. A justice hall or court house was across the street from the building she needed. She only knew it was a court house by the woman in a dress that is blindfolded holding up a set of scales with one hand and a sword in the other. It was a well known symbol known as Lady Justice.
She walked up the steps of the other building. Likely some kind of records or something. She shook off her cloak of access water before opening one of the double doors to go into the building.
It was a long wide room of sorts with a single desk somewhere near the back center of the room. Behind the desks was a bifurcated staircase, the wood was polished to a high shine. Along the sides below and above were doors. Closed.
There was a man behind the desk. Human by the look of him. He had a receding hair line and his wrinkles showed his age. His hair was grey and was just shorter than his shoulders. He had on glasses on his narrow nose, and he was clean shaven. He was dressed in a cotton poet shirt and a well made vest over that, and nice trousers. The human looked every bit like what she assumed the upper class would look like.
She approached the desk and stood. The human was writing something down in a ledger.
“Can I help you?” the man asked, his voice reminded her of the goblin in the Harry Potter movies.
“I need to deliver a message to Lesik Moors,” she said.
“You don’t look like a messenger,” the human replied.
“Well what does a messenger look like?”
The human was silent for a moment before he put his quill into its holder and stood up. “Wait here.”
Janet nodded her head. The older man went up the stairs and to the right. She moved nearer to a pillar and leaned over to pet Fang. It wasn’t too long before the man came back down.
“Follow me,” he said. Janet pushed off the pillar and started to follow along after the clerk. He have a shallow bow and motioned to the open door. She stepped into the office. She was expecting something grandiose, but it was rather practical. Across from the door was a balcony door leading to the balcony, half of the curtains were pulled back to allow the natural light, as dimmed from clouds as it was, to enter.
On her right was a floor to ceiling wall book case with books. A painting of an elfin woman hung on the wall between the case and the balcony doors. On her left was another floor to ceiling book case with books, less than on the right, and in front of that was a large desk that looked mostly clean beside some rolled documents and a couple of books. An ornate ink well and feathered quill sat quietly to one side. A polished crystal ball sat in one corner of the desk, its holder like rising snakes.
The man standing behind the desk almost made her laugh. He was an elf with an angler face, sharp edges. A long beak like hooked nose that was narrow with a pronounced bridge. His eyes were almond shaped and were bright blue. His hair was black and fell in straight locks. Most of it was pulled back into a low tail at the nape of his neck, but some fell over his shoulders and down to his waist. His fingers were long and narrow.
The clothing of choice was black trousers, a grey poet shirt with a red cravat, over that was a black vest long tunic, that was very clearly fantasy and religious alb inspired. It was split in the front and on the sides up to the waist. His belt was a wide red colored sash.
This guy screams villain.
“You have a message for me?” the elf, Lesik Moors asked.
“Yes,” she said and got into her pack and pulled out the letter.
Taking the letter he motioned to the chair. “Have a seat.” Then he sat behind his desk himself.
Janet was confused, but sat down. She watched as the man opened the letter and his bright blue eyes scanned over the contents.
“Have you seen many goblins in your travels?”
She had to think for a moment. “16? 17 if you count a big furry one over the last four days?” she answered.
“Big furry one?” His eyebrow raise really gave her evil villain vibes.
“It was about my height, covered in patchy brown hair, and had a face like an ape,” she explained.
“Sounds like a bugbear, yes, of the goblin kind.” He went quiet and stood up to go to the doors and look outside. His hands clasped behind his back. “I am in a dilemma.”
Janet wasn’t sure what to say about that, so she remained quiet.
“I do not wish to work with the Expatriates, since they have started to arrive two, or three days ago, I have been getting nothing but complaints from the citizens. They have been walking through the city and into shops and even barging into personal homes and looking through people’s things. Then they complain about being arrested for such crimes, and tell me its their right to do this.” His long fingers curled behind his back.
“I cannot ignore the Goblin Menace in the forest, it is disrupting our trade, and our hunters and gatherers,” he was looking at her through the reflection of the glass of the window. Her arms got goosebumps . “I would like to offer you a chance to help me before I have to turn to the miscreants.”
“What would I have to do?” she asked, not trusting this at all.
“Kill goblins,” he said.
She folded her arms and looks at him.
“To be more precise, kill more and more of them, decimate them. Can you do that?”
“How many are in the forest?” she asked.
“From the report, about ten thousand.”
Yay, math… its easy math at least, just subtract a zero. A thousand.
“How long?”
“I can postpone giving the bounty to the unsavory for 35 days.”
That’s not a lot of time for a thousand goblins.
“In the off chance I get more than 10 percent of them?”
“I will congratulate you on your achievement,” he said looking over his shoulder at Janet.
I really don't think I like you.
“At a silver piece per left ear, you’re walking away pretty well. Even with what I am asking.”
“But you’re asking for about 30 kills in a day. So far the most I killed in a day was 11 plus a dog thing.”
“So what is another 19?”
Janet wasn’t sure if she could kill a thousand goblins in 35 days, no less than because of travel and she was going to stay here another day, and then travel back. She would need to kill closer to 40 a day.
The elf was looking down at her from his half turned position from the window.
“How about an encouragement, I will double your bounty if you get it finished.”
“Why a thousand?”
“While it wont matter against their over all numbers, that will give me trust in you to do it all, this way I follow our system laws of offering a bounty, but I only have to offer it to you at that time.”
“Because you don’t want to help the others.”
“Why should I offer them work when they terrorize my people? You, being of a monstrous race as you are, are aware at least somewhat aware of how society works.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to just kill the goblins. However she had another quest that revolved, so far, around them.
“What if I fail?”
“Depends on by how much. If you only get a hundred, you are not worth my time. However, eight hundred or so, then I can work with that. I expect a thousand.”
“I will give you a gold to help you gain equipment and supplies you will need,” he added after she remained silent for a bit.
It will be easier once I gain more levels. At first it will be really hard.
“Of course, if you come across chiefs, I will pay a gold per chief head dress.”
“Fine, right it up in a contract,” she said and leaned back in her chair. She saw his thin lips turn up into a joker like smile, and she felt slimy. She didn’t know why, he has been nice, and concerned for his people. But he gave her the creeps.
She also learned that she was going to need to learn quickly this world’s monetary system.
The elf gave a nod and then went to his desk to write up the contract.