Novels2Search
The Traveling Shop Keeper
23 - Squeeky Wheel

23 - Squeeky Wheel

Tyler found himself back in his bedroom, staring at his action figure set. He felt empty, lost and angry, all because he didn't know what to do. He was able to dive back into HYTOMA, but what would he do? He could easily buy a shop using the stash of gold in his wagon, but doing it so quickly meant that he would probably quick run into problems with the Tippin' Top Hats. When he came to the realization that he wasn't going to have a shop any time soon, he realized how many of his plans were reliant on having a shop.

He looked down on his undocked screen in it's tablet form, looking at his quest menu in hopes he would think of something to do. The Dragon Threat was still looming;

** The Dragon Threat

Dragons have appeared on the outskirts of Myneria, but no contact has been made with the race. After appearing outside of the Capital city, the moved away just as quickly without any contact. After a day, Dragons appeared again, and without warning, the Capital city was attacked and suffered complete destruction. Adventurers are tasked by the Royal Family of Myneria to discover any potential information related to the Dragons, donate resources to assist in the rebuilding of Myneria or report to the guild Holy Hand Crafters to assist in construction efforts around Myneria. **

Reading the quest, Tyler could donate some of his dwindling stocks, but he couldn't see that helping him out in his current situation. Without a shop, he would have no way in storing supplies in trade deals getting materials into the city, so any deal he could make would be limited with what he could carry on his back. He could go back to Myneria and volunteer in construction efforts, but since he had no skills in construction, he would likely be sidelined to sweeping up rubble.

Tyler rubbed his hands up and down on his face, frustrated with not seeing a way to move forward in the quest, he exhaled slowly. He looked at the second quest he had listed, frowning at how insignificant it looked compared to Dragons.

** A Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

After your frantic escape from an entire brood of Dragons, your wagon is damaged and unable to travel. While you can store items in your wagon and use it to sell items, not being able to move locations makes your class no different than a normal shop keeper. You have sent out a request for a carpenter to repair your wagon, but being unable to spread the word of your request, you can only wait for a response to your request posted on a job board. **

Tyler groaned, coming to the realization that his request will probably never be seen, as it was likely his request was posted to a Myneria job board. With the city destroyed, Tyler could only assume that the job board was destroyed as well along with all the jobs attached to it. Falling backwards to lay on his bed, he held the tablet above his face, staring at his willing for something to happen.

Dropping his hands straight out to his sides, he held the tablet in his left hand, he let his mind wander thinking what was next if he managed to find someone to repair the broken wheel. He quickly came to the conclusion that learning how to use the wagon, specifically, the shop function. He had the basic tutorial lessons under his belt, setting up and dismantling the wagon for travel, but nothing for setting up his shop. His eyes widened, how was he supposed to move his wagon once the wheel was fixed if he didn't have horses.

As his mind began to go wild with endless problems that could be ahead of him, his tablet let him know that a message had been delivered. Tyler jumped on the opportunity to stop thinking on all the negatives on the horizon, he brought his tablet in front of him and opened the message.

"Pylioth, I'm with TitanicVoice right now, we spawned in the same location near Noobie Alley. I'm guessing that the respawn point near Myneria was destroyed along with the city, so we got forced over here. Hoping you will be diving in soon, there seems to be a Gnome running around here that is looking for the person who needs a wheel repaired. She said she wanted to accept the quest right away, but something about needing permission to work on the wagon prevents her from adding the quest to her log. Anyways, wall of text, sorry, hurry up and get over to the Drunken Lullabies tavern in Noobie Alley, we'll be here for the next few hours. - Jars"

Tyler smiled, while he would call out Gnomes at every opportunity, he would never doubt the specializations of Gnome crafters. While their explosives would never match a Goblin Sapper, their construction was safe, adding extra durability to anything they built. To get a Gnome interested in repairing his wagon, he found his excitement growing in the possibility in extra work on the rest of the wagon.

Tired of moping around feeling sorry for himself, Tyler picked himself off his bed and got ready to dive into HYTOMA.

-

Tyler blinked, and he was surrounded by the forest just outside of Noobie Alley. There were small groups of people sitting and standing about, talking amongst themselves, a few of them looked towards Tyler. Tyler shrugged to them, and looked towards the small settlement then said out loud "Anybody know where Drunken Lullabies is?" A tall man, likely a Giant, stepped forward, pulled something off his wrist and threw a globe of light to Tyler. Tyler's wrist companion acknowledged the location information packet, and let Tyler know that the location was added to his map. "Thanks chum, I appreciate it."

Looking at his wrist companion, he saw his location and it was on the edge of Noobie Alley, in a straight line from where he currently stood. Thinking about it, it was one of the many taverns set up looking to cash in adventurers respawning and needing a location to get a separated group back together. In Tyler's excitement, without thinking, he started jogging over to the Tavern, more specifically to Tyler, jogging to his new group.

After a few minutes, Tyler was in front of the tavern, he smiled and walked through the door. As soon as he crossed the door, his wrist companion began to sing.

"Must it take a life for hateful eyes

To glisten once again

'Cause we find ourselves in the same old mess

Singin' drunken lullabies"

"Nice." Tyler said in approval, sometimes places would have an introduction for first time visitors that didn't make sense, but this was perfect. Looking across the tavern, a large bar top spanned the space on Tyler's left, and tables of different sizes in squares and circles scattered across the room. At the back of the room, a large hearth was burning happily away, and just to the right of it, he saw JarsForJars' red hair, and next to her, TitanicVoice was sitting back on his chair, and with his face to the door, Tyler could see TitanicVoice's eyes constantly scanning the room, clearly not comfortable being surrounded by so many people. He saw a third person sitting at the table, small Gnome was slamming back a drink. Floating around her were five fairies with different colors, blue, green, blue, red, and yellow.

Just as Tyler was taking in the impressive assortment of worker fairies, TitanicVoice noticed Tyler and nudged JarsForJars and pointed up with his nose in Tyler's directions. "Pylioth! Over here, we saved you a seat." JarsForJars called over. Tyler gimmaced, the call caused all of the adventurers sitting in the tavern to look at the table, then focus on Tyler standing at the entrance.

Tyler scratched the back of his head as he made his way over to the table, nodding his head at anybody he made eye contact with. Tyler took a seat, "thanks for saving me a seat."

"Why didn't you reply to my message?" JarsForJars said to Tyler, a frown taking over her face, and Tyler could see Mason in the frown. "We were just discussing what our options would be since we had no idea what you were doing."

"Sorry, figured since I was diving in as soon as I saw your message, I would just reply when I met up with everybody." Tyler looked down at the table top, not needing to see disappointment in the digital version of Agent Mason.

"Well, it is what it is, and here we are now." JarsForJars motioned towards the Gnome sitting with the group, "this is FairyHammerTime, she was looking for the owner of the wagon to get permission to start working."

The gnome smiled as she put an unlit cigar in her mouth, she turned her head to the side, and the red fairy flew to the end of the cigar and lit it with a small flame. "Good to me 'cha. I'll keep it short, I already found your wagon, but when I tried to work on it, I got warned that I need permission before I can start work. I don't know how you got such special treatment, but I need that permission to get started."

Tyler nodded as he accessed his wagon menu, and opened permissions and quickly studied the UI as this was the first time he looked at the permissions available to him. He put FairyHammerTime's name in, and a small drop down box appeared, and saw a list of different roles available. He saw 'Maintenance' was an option, and he figured it was the best option for the Gnome. As soon as he added it, another drop down menu box appeared, and figured that a person could have multiple roles for his wagon. Not wanting to get ahead of himself, he added JarsForJars and TitanicVoice to the UI, and assigned them the 'Passenger' option, and decided it wasn't the right time to add FairyHammerTime as a passenger.

When he looked up from his UI, he saw that the three people at the table were all reading their tablet. Their eyes were wide, clearly reading something that was a big surprise to them, JarsForJars was the first to say anything. "Wait, I'm a passenger on your wagon?"

"Me too, not sure what this means though." TitanicVoice said with a shrug. "I'm just going to assume that we can ride on your wagon once it's up and running."

"Now that's what I'm talking about." The Gnome said through a cloud of smoke. "This is exactly what I need to get to work. I'm not much for small talk, so I'm heading over to your wagon and start working. I will warn you though, your wagon location isn't a secret location any more, and there are crowds around the wagon, and I know for a fact that almost all of them want the wagon for themselves. Anyway, that's for your to sort out, I'm off!" With that, the Gnome pushed out from the table, got up and left the tavern.

Tyler watched the Gnome leave, then turned back to the table. "Was that THE F.H.T.? The very same creator that somehow manages to sign every single item that she creates? Nobody even understands how she got the combat fairies she tamed to take part in her construction, let alone how all of her creations are signed." Tyler was literally gushing. "It's literally a dream to enter a trade agreement with her, trading guilds would probably go to war just to get a contract with her!"

Looking at the other two members at the table, it was clear they didn't appreciate what had just happened.

"You know the reward from the quest to fix the wheel, where her name gets attached to the wagon? Think of it this way, people would pay tens of thousands of gold just for a name plate that would attach to a store, and I got it by getting her to repair my wheel. In all honesty, her contracts start at 100,000g for an iron sword, and she's doing this just to have a nameplate on my wagon?"

"100,000 gold? I mean, the gold I received by accepting your contract blew my mind, even though there isn't a time limit, 10,000 gold is enough to buy the unlock for your second class." TitanicVoice said slowly. "I was finally planning on unlocking a production class, which would finally finish me getting my 3 classes."

"Listen, we need to get over to that wagon." Tyler knew better to pry more information about TitanicVoice's classes, even though he would love to know if the Titan was planning on chosing a class to unlock a new class. With the nature of classes in HYTOMA, even though you could originally only chose 3 classes, when two classes worked together to unlock a new class, it was possible to unlock a multitude of classes due to combinations upon the purchase of a new class. A sword and board Warrior class combined with a holy Priest class would unlock the Paladin, but if the player had the Pugilist class, the creation of Paladin combining with the Pugilist would create a Bright Monk. "I think it's best that she understands what this quest is about, I don't want her being mad after completing the quest, and left with only her nameplate on the wagon."

TitanicVoice and JarsForJars agreed immediately, probably for different reasons than Tyler, but that didn't matter to Tyler. He now had an escort to his Wagon, which helped alliviate some concerns Tyler had with the Tippin' Top Hats guild, specifically JackAttack coming to enact further revenge. Standing from his chair, looking at his employees, he realized that they were staring back at him.

"We were there for the battle," TitanicVoice began, "but don't forget you somehow teleported us there, so we have no idea how to get there. You are the one who has to lead the way."

Tyler nodded and pulled up his map and extended it to lay out on the table they were in front of. Setting up permissions, he allowed his waypoints to be visible to JarsForJars and TitanicVoice. A big green arrow had to smaller magenta arrows facing each other on the edge of Noobie Alley that represented Tyler and his group. A yellow arrow appeared a distance away from Noobie alley, which was quickly heading away from his group, it was noted to be FairyHammerTime. Judging from the speed the arrow was travelling, the gnome was flying directly to his wagon, and tracing the line the arrow was heading, his finger landed on a green wagon. The wagon was closer to the ruins of Myneria, which was no longer represented on the map as a sprawling city but shown as a pile of rubble reflecting the dragon attack. The group would be able to cover most of the distance following the road from Noobie Alley, but a third of their journey would be through the forest off the established road.

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"Well, I'm clearly too low to have a mount, the fact that neither of you are a class that can use the 'Taxi' ability, we've got a bit of a walk ahead of us." Tyler was looking at the map, he pointed to the area where they would turn off the main road into the forest. "I walked from Myneria not too long ago, and the roads have enough traffic to put a temporary halt to any bandits from attacking us. The thing I'm worried about is going into the forest myself, I'm not a combat class, so I'll be a wet noodle if we get into a fight."

He heard JarsForJars sigh when he mentioned his inability in combat. "We'll be fine, both Titanic and myself are higher level than expected beasts in the area." JarsForJars began to look annoyed as she continued. "I think we have both proven we can help keep you alive while you are running away from the people that attacked you inside Myneria."

Tyler clenched his jaw, that was the Agent Mason he knew. He couldn't be really that angry though, everything she said was the truth, and he could understand her frustration with him inadvertantly telling her that he was worried about his safety while accompanied by JarsForJars and TitanicVoice. They were the reason he even had a chance at getting away from the capital city without needing a respawn. That being said, "fair enough, but I also don't think that those dragons were supposed to be in the area either. I think we need to plan that some things aren't how they are supposed to be, while I don't know if those dragons are after me, you saw with your own eyes that those dragons did attack my wagon."

"Which we also fought when you called us into that mess, and we also all walked away without needing to go for a walk."

Tyler never thought he would have the opportunity to not fear getting confrontational with Mason, and now that he was in this situation, he decided not to push too far, but wouldn't just cower away as if he were walking in the Tower. "I won't argue that point, but I will say, it's not like you chased them off, they left on their own. I'm not trying to say anything about what you can fight against, but I will say that we don't know what will happen when we leave the road. For all we know, an AI content generator could be aware that we are heading to the wagon, and is now creating a scenario for us to fight through, or, I could be getting worked up for nothing." Tyler exhaled a deep breath, "I'm used to thinking out loud, and I'm just trying to think of any curveballs thrown our way that could make our lives difficult. I'm used to having to plan for the worst, and quite frankly, up until now, I haven't been planning on the worst outcomes. I didn't have time in Myneria to think about what could go wrong if I took a left turn instead of a right turn, I didn't have time to think of anything when I first encountered the dragons for the first time. I literally picked a fight with the Tippin' Top Hats guild because I was just trying to avoid a walk!

JarsForJars looked shocked for a brief moment, but the look disappeared, but wasn't replaced by anger, more like a look of resignation. "I'm sorry, what I do in the Tower doesn't give me a good chance to work with other people. I'm usually not able to give solid times to people for raiding dungeons or go achievement hunting, and I guess my guard is up." JarsForJars looked up, a distant look on her face. "Honestly, I can't even remember when I've been able to rack up so much dive time, and I guess I'm just waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me. I'll do my best at not reading too much into things moving forward, both of you have shown me that you want to work as a team, and it was wrong of me to accuse you of thinking so little of me."

Tyler, not wanting to reveal that fact that he had decided that JarsForJars was actually Agent Mason, but without her saying who she was, there was still a chance that he was wrong. "Don't stress over this, I appreciate your apology, but the reality is, we still barely know each other." Tyler figured that JarsForJars apologizing for her actions wasn't easy to do for Mason, she was probably used to people apologizing to her. "I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have more conflict moving forward, it seems like we are all pretty used to working solo, and I know for myself, I'm used to not having to worry about upsetting other people. My former partners were completely different classes than what I am, so as long as I had my mind on the bigger picture, I was free to operate as I saw fit. The only thing we can do moving forward is move forward, we will learn more about each other as we get more comfortable as a group. Honestly, I'm not even sure why you guys haven't called me out for not giving more details on what we are up to."

TitanicVoice cleared his throat, looking to get his opinion in. "Well, I haven't said anything because of the NDA, and I didn't want to bug you with endless questions, and didn't want to get frustrated by constantly being told that what I wanted to know wasn't needed to know. I figured that you would give us details when we needed to know." The Titan shrugged, and JarsForJars nodded in agreement.

"Fair enough, and truth be told, I'm not even completely sure in what is going on." Tyler sighed, and felt he needed to share some of what he knew, even limited as it was, he did need to build up trust in his team. "I have a quest that I received, which just happened to align with the job I hired you with, The Dragon Threat. To simplify what the quest is, I'm tasked to investigate the Dragon Threat, and that's basically it. I don't have any destination to travel to, I don't have any information on people who to talk to, I have nothing. My best guess is that it involves my wagon, and once it has been repaired, I'm hoping that I get an update, or I catch some piece of information that leads me in the right direction." Tyler looked at his employees, trying to gauge their reaction, and decided to press on. "I can't give exact details, but I will say, this is going somewhere big. I haven't gotten anywhere in progressing the quest, but I have had direct involvement from Prime, IV, V, and VI. Yes, VI, the chaotic Prime AI, I have also had direct involvement with III while walking in the Tower, and from what I have heard, VII was behind the dragon attack on me when I first hired the two of you."

Tyler was flipping his attention between the two adventurers, and he watched when their reactions went from surprised when he mentioned Prime, IV and V, then to horror as soon as he said VI, then to outright grimaces from what he guessed was a look of disbelief. He couldn't blame them, having an interaction with one of the Prime AI was a rarity, but to have interactions with five of them was unheard of. Tyler thought about letting them know about the discussion of other towers, but decided to not open that can of worms yet. He didn't even know if they would be able to join him on venturing outside of the Tower, let alone didn't even if they would be interested in leaving the Tower. Mason was a Tower agent, she put her duties as a Tower Agent over being an adventurer, would she even be allowed to leave the Tower? TitanicVoice was an AI, maybe even a TI, and with what Tyler saw of the robot that moved his possessions, he had difficulty seeing an easy journey outside of the Tower. Thinking it over, Tyler solidified his decision, and didn't go any futher about the details with dealing with the Prime AI and the plans he was told moving forward. For all he knew, they were supposed to stay in the Tower, and act as support while he was inside that Tower.

"I don't want to outright call you a liar, but it's difficult to believe that a noobie like you would be so involved with the Prime AI, let alone be given a quest like this when you clearly don't have a combat class." JarsForJars held up one hand, with her index finger held out. "You know, speaking of class, what class are you? You have a wagon, so originally I assumed you were a Caravanner, but then I heard about a new shop opening up, and when I looked into it, you were registered to an operator of the store, which means you would be a Shop Keeper." JarsForJars dropped her hand, and stared at Tyler. When Tyler turned his gaze over to TitanicVoice, the Titan didn't say a word, but the look of curiosity was plastered under his beard.

"I can't say how I got my class, but in hopes of building up more trust with us, I think I'm safe to tell you. I have a hidden class, it's called Traveling Shop Keeper." Tyler pulled up his tablet, and pressed a few buttons on the screen, sending his class to his employees. "From my understanding of the class is that I'm not restricted by having to operated inside a store front, and allows me to not only travel with a wagon, but I can operate a store out of said wagon. I have some other smaller perks, but what I just said about the wagon seems to be the bulk of my class." Tyler wanted to say more, speicifally about his log book, but he didn't even fully understand it's capabilities. Volunteering information, as per rule 6 in the Path to Credits, would mean people would digest the information in front of them, and not look at the dirty secrets you were trying to hide. "As for the quest, I think part of it is that I'm supposed to spread news of the quest, because it mentions rebuilding efforts as well with donating materials to assist with the rebuilding of Myneria."

Finally, TitanicVoice decided to take part in the conversation. "Well, I don't think things are that simple to be honest. If it were, I'm sure JackAttack would have gotten some sort of quest trigger when he got in your way when you first arrived in Myneria." The Titan stroked his beard. "Well, we could be here for weeks discussing this, the question is, it's your quest, how do you want to move forward?"

Tyler smiled, putting on some false bravado. "That's easy, we go find my wagon." While Tyler didn't know what his next step would be, he hoped that when the wagon was up and running again, he would get an idea of what to do next.

The trio left the tavern behind, and in a short amount of time they found themselves on the same road Tyler traveled from the ruins of Myneria and Noobie Alley. Tyler casted side long glances at his employees, not even trying to hide the jealousy on his face. They both had their mounts out and were riding alongside Tyler, maintaining the speed Tyler was traveling. Fully in their tablet window, Tyler couldn't even try to knock them out of their research by picking up speed, slowing back down, stopping to look at a particular plant on the side of the road, but the mounts just followed along. TitanVoice was riding a six legged horse, and when Tyler had a chance, he discovered the plated horse armor was made out of Mythril. JarsForJars had a mount that was clearly in a different specialization, not geared for combat, but ready for flight. She sat upon what looked like a winged horse, but Tyler couldn't confirm if it was the legendary Pegasus mount, and was equipped with leather armor, allowing for faster flying travel.

Tyler decided that if his party members were going to be traveling on their mounts, he was going to dive into his character. He decided that it was finally time to take another look at his Travelers Log Book, and what it had to offer him. He pulled out his UI, and brought up his Travelers Log Book tab, he was immediately regretful that he waited so long to look at the book. Why did he have to enjoy the walk to Noobie Alley, and not dig into the Log Book then? There was now a fifth option to select from, and like the other options, he had no idea what to expect.

Welcome to your Log Book. Please select from the available options.

Pickup

Deliver

Buy

Upgrade (1,000 Credits)

Knowledge

Knowledge, what was the point in that? If there was anything he needed to understand, he could bring up the Tower intranet and browse many forums that had all the knowledge of HYTOMA since people began digitizing. Realizing that he was probably going to have his full attention on the UI, he let TitanicVoice he would be hooked to follow and would be doing some research on his UI. After being set up to travel, he selected Knowledge and began to read.

Welcome to your Knowledge portion of your Travelers Log, you are seeing this message as it's the first time you have accessed this part of your log. The information contained here are all the skills and abilities that you have been exposed to long enough to understand how they work. To unlock an item inside your Knowledge tab, you need to receive training on the skill. You will not be able to see what is contained inside a Knowledge tree until you have unlocked the skill.

Unlocked Skills:

Camping:

Build Camp – Novice

The ability to set up a camp is the most basic of skills for Adventurers. While many Adventurers understand the functions of a basic camps, an advanced Adventurer knows that a camp can be much more than a bed roll on a fire.

1. Wagon Care – 50% Further progression locked until upgrades made to Wagon.

2. Fire – 10% You have an understanding of how to create a fire, select Fire from your Knowledge tree for a step by step break down of setting up a basic fire. Further improvement requires cooking skill.

3. Tent – 25% A canvas tent is the basic option for the prepared traveler. Tent setup gives detailed direction for steps to take to set up a canvas tent. Further improvement requires higher quality materials for advanced set up. Further improvement requires training on creating shelters using materials found in the wild.

4. Trade Stations – 1% Your understanding Wagon Care has made you aware of potential upgrades to your Wagon while parked. Further improvement requires a better understanding of Trade Skills.

5. ????

1. 6. ????

2. 7. ????

Driving:

Wagon Driver – Beginner

Being able to drive a wagon is one of the most important skills for any Class that transports materials and people.

1. Combat – 25% Quick reactions and speed control allows you to avoid potential damage to your wagon, be wary of speed you are traveling while trying to make a tight turn. Further improvement requires understanding of Combat Skills.

1. 2. ????

2. 3. ????

3. 4. ????

Reading through the knowledge page, Tyler was once again left with more questions than he had answers. From what Tyler had digested, he was sitting on what could be the most powerful accessory in the game. It made mention of understanding trade skills, combat skills and specified the cooking skill for his wagon. To improve his Fire skill under camping, he assumed that if he could add the Cooking skill to his Log Book, he would be able to create an improved camp fire. Tyler decided that when he had the opportunity, he would talk to someone with the Cooking skill, and try and figure out how to add the skill to his Log Book.

Tyler put his hand to his chin, and thought about how Camping and Driving was added to his Log Book in the first place. Remembering his tutorial, he had received a number of lessons from IV, how to set up the wagon to leave the camp, build a fire, dismantle the tent. During his desperate escape, he was directed by IV to drive the wagon while she held off the Dragons. He followed the instructions to steer and change speed of the wagon, and he did attempt to make a turn while driving at a high speed.

Tyler closed out his window and took a breath, trying to calm down his excitement. From what he had pieced together, when he received specific instruction on how to use a skill, it was added to his book. This was completely different than how other Adventurers learned their skill, by paying a Skill instructor gold, the skills were added to their character, and were immediately able to use those skills. Did this mean that if Tyler were to learn how to swing a sword, did that mean he could engage in combat even though he wasn't a Combat class?

Tyler thought back to when he first entered Myneria, and his gamble with the gate guard hoping to get carried through the crowd of people. After apparently getting in the good books of the gate guard, he was offered to visit the guard, as well with the potential of learning a few things. The guard was probably placed at the location to be able to offer new adventurers how to learn the skill, and was offered compensation for the time spent at the gate doing nothing instead of going out on a quest. Due to the fact that autonomous characters were not used in HYTOMA, being a trainer was typically filled by older players who had tired of the grind of running to raids or dungeons, and were happy to relax in a city and earn their gold by helping young adventurers survive the hostile wilds.

Putting more thought into it, and from his understanding, the guard received a notification that Tyler was someone who could be taught. He thought about his time inside of HYTOMA, he must have passed a few other trainers at some point, but the only time he was offered to learn something was from the guard. Yet another item onto the list of things that Tyler didn't have any clues in how to move forward with, but with the Log Book, he could immediately see the advantages of finding a way forward. Tyler wished he had a bit more time in Myneria before it was razed, who knows what he would have learned if he just had a few minutes of calm inside the city.

Tyler returned his UI to his wrist, deciding that any more research into his Log Book would likely get lost in the fold of what Tyler already learned. Letting TitanicVoice know that he was back in control of his travel, he lost himself in the beauty of his surroundings again. He may have been regretting not researching his Log Book on his previous walk, but walking through a living, breathing forrest, he understood why people always maxed out their dive time. Rather than taking free time walking the Tower, people would just spend that time diving, eating a meal with friends in a city, taking a loved one to the top of a mountain, or just catching a nap on a large green field with prairie dogs running around.

As Tyler continued along the path, he thought back to his interaction with Prime, just before he first entered HYTOMA.

"Have either of you two thought about going outside of the Tower?"