The next morning arrived and I was ready for it. What I wasn’t ready for was Iagan’s passed out form sprawled half on my bed, half stuck in the air on his, blissfully unaware. I shifted, getting out of his way as I got out from under my meager covers. I made use of the small bathroom connected to our room and changed clothes into my ‘I survived the Rainbow! [Secret Recipe: Rainbow Curry]’ shirt. I brushed my teeth and put on some sunscreen in anticipation of our hustle we’d planned on for the day.
A short rapping came from the door. I opened it, toothbrush in hand to find a bellhop holding a tray with two domed covers and a large thermos.
“Complimentary Breakfast.” He said holding it out to me. I popped the brush back in my mouth and took it from him.
“‘Fanks,”
The bellhop gave a curt nod and then retreated down the hallway leaving me to my meal. I shut the door behind me and brought it over to the table, lifting one of the lids to see what was waiting underneath. Greeting me were two triangles of toast, one sunny side up egg, two small links of sausage, a wavy strip of bacon and a small cup of assorted fruits. Off to the side were a pair of coffee cups and plates to rest them on with small amounts of cream and sugar in packets underneath. I opened the thermos and poured myself a cup, mixing in cream and sugar afterwords letting the pale cream take on the brown hue as it swirled. Warm in my hands I blew on it as I took a plate for myself and had breakfast on the balcony, letting my legs kick over the edge as I ate.
Sheets ruffled in the room as Iagan finally stirred, falling all the way to the floor with a thud. I leaned back in through the doorway and thumbed over to the table.
“Mornin’ glory. Food’s here and there’s coffee.”
Iagan mumbled something unintelligible under his breath as he rubbed his neck. He grabbed his plate and brought it out and poured himself a cup of coffee as he sat next to me. Bleary eyed and still half asleep I watched as he ate robotically chewing his toast. He sipped his coffee, consciousness finally starting to appear in his eyes.
“You ready to walk around?” I asked him once he finished his meal and coffee. “We’ve got a lot of city to cover if we want to find as many quests as we can.”
“Yeah, I’m hoping for at least five quests at the very least today.” He said as he cracked his neck with a loud pop and a sigh. “Damn that bed doesn’t sleep well at all.”
“It would probably work better if you stayed on it all night.” I chuckled summoning my floppy sun hat from Fyera and putting it on. He gave me a strange look as we left the room and headed down into the lobby of the inn. A different person was seated behind the nautical front desk and my HUD highlighted a small rotating stand now on the side of it. I detoured, approaching the front desk to take a look. It was filled with usual toiletries: vials of shampoos and mesh bags of crumbling soap that smelled like salt and citrus. Mermaid tail toothbrushes as well as toothpaste, small scallop shaped washcloths and a small hairbrush.
I grabbed one of everything.
“Good morning.” The man at the counter greeted as I laid out my haul. “That comes out to 5 gold. I trust you enjoyed your breakfast?”
I paid with coin, scooping my toiletry treasures into my fanny pack. “Yes, it was wonderful thank you.”
Iagan slapped down the mermaid fin toothbrush and toothpaste. I did my best to stifle a giggle as he paid and sent them away to his inventory. “Are there any community boards or postings near here?”
“Yes, if you go out and hook a right there should be a rather large one down in the heart of the docks.” He said gesturing off in the general direction.
We thanked him and left. The sea breeze rushed to greet us with a flurry as we set off down the bright roads again. The ruckus from the [Skill Challenge] on the docks was long gone, most of it’s instigators left with the tide. But sure enough as the man had said there was a large double bulletin board that looked like a bus stop with it’s covered overhang. Iagan looked like a kid at Christmas as we came up to it.
“Oh we’ll have our pick of the litter here!” He laughed with excitement.
Papers of all shapes sizes and colors were tacked on completely filling all the space available. Handwriting styles varied widely from prim and proper documents to hastily scribbled on scraps. My HUD slid over each of them as one of the hastily written scraps caught my attention:
> ‘Help Wanted. Old Hallan’s Farmstead, Seamyst. Urgent.’
[New Quest Available: ::Ghoulish Guests::]
[::GHOULISH GUESTS::
TRACK NEW QUEST?
Y/N?]
I read the title of the quest again as I accepted. “[::Ghoulish Guests::]? Ghoulish as in ghosts? Oh, that could be fun Iagan let’s go see!”
“It doesn’t have a reward on it.” He said looking back to some of the other papers. “This one here is a fetch quest to go cart stones from the local quarry into town! That should be easy to do and says it’s repeatable daily for 30 gold per trip!”
A notification popped up in my HUD as he accepted the quest as our party leader.
[New Quest Available: ::Quarry that Weight::]
[::QUARRY THAT WEIGHT::
TRACK NEW QUEST
Y/N?]
It filed itself away under my tracked quests on the right side of my HUD. The single special quest Plyne had given me sat segregated in it’s own categorization like a spider web you couldn’t quite reach even with your duster. I left it to it’s brooding, trying not to let it haunt me.
“Oh fuck here we go.” Iagan laughed and a new quest popped up.
[New Quest Available: ::Clucks for Bucks::]
[::CLUCKS FOR BUCKS::
TRACK NEW QUEST
Y/N?]
Again I accepted and added it to the list, the details of all the quests Iagan was quickly accepting pulling up in my HUD.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
[::Clucks for Bucks::]
[Gather Gerta’s Lost Chickens]
[Reward: 1 gold per chicken + New Title]
[::Ghoulish Guests::]
[Deal with the strange intruders at Old Hallan’s Farmstead]
[Reward: To Be Determined Upon Completion]
[::Quarry that Weight::]
[Oversee a shipment of stone from the local Quartz Quarry into Seamyst]
[Reward: 30 gold per trip. Repeatable once per day.]
[::Lost Necklace::]
[Locate Reyla’s lost necklace in the bay]
[Reward: 15 gold]
[::Hands for Hire::]
[Help Bobbin’s Bookstore offload and stock their latest shipment of books]
[Reward: 30 gold]
[::Prevalent Pest Problems::]
[Exterminate the pests in the basement of the Polished Pair’s Patisserie]
[Reward: 2 gold per rat tail]
“Now that’s a full quest log.” Iagan said with satisfaction. We’d gotten all the quests available that would give gold as rewards. I opened up my Seamyst city map in my HUD to find several areas marked with small yellow dots, with a blue one near the water indicating our location. Another small pop up appeared asking if I wanted to share my map with all Party Members. Click. Iagan blinked in surprise as the map pulling up in his HUD that I couldn’t see.
“Let’s figure out which stops to hit in what order after we pick up my camera.” I said.
“Sounds like a plan.”
We set off retracing our steps from yesterday to go back to the Enchantment Emporium. The city around us was bustling with life of its own as people milled about in casual everyday life. Small groups of people sat gossiping together off the side of the road in the shade, while others went about carting their wares too and from. Iagan looked more in place than I did with my wide brimmed hat but I tried not to let it bother me. I was a walking advertisement for The Dapper Crate so my clothes needed to draw stares. I pushed in through the door, being greeted with the deep voice from nowhere.
“Welcome to Enchantment Emporium.”
Tel appeared a moment later poking his head out from the back room and lighting up as he saw me.
“Welcome back! I’ve got your camera all ready to go.” He called as he vanished back into the room once again. Iagan and I waited at the counter as Tel brought it out and set it down. It looked the same as ever but as I took hold of it a new name popped up:
[MykaReviews’s Water Proof Camera] -For the Photo Compendium! |Floor 1 Memory card| |Flash ?/NA|
Properties-Flash has a chance to stun target on first picture taken. Chance to activate raises after multiple attempts versus same target.
Upgrades active 1/2: [Water Proof]]
“The name changed!” I said in surprise.
“I can change it to something else for a nominal fee of 1 gold.” Tel said. Iagan perked up.
“Can you change it for anything or only enchanted items?” He asked pulling out his [Adventurer’s Standard Long Sword] and setting it on the counter. Tel eyed the gems he’d socketed into his handle with an impressed nod.
“An elemental sword!” Tel said with a low whistle. “Don’t see many of these running around! Yeah I can change the name of this item, what were you thinking?”
Iagan slapped down a gold piece. “I want it changed to [Fog Machine].”
Tel obliged and renamed the sword appropriately. Iagan looked absolutely tickled as he put the sword away. I slung the camera strap around my neck adding the camera back to my inventory once more, looking through the viewfinder.
“[Water Proof] will keep your camera safe at any depth and for any length of time. Comes with a lifetime warranty for as long as your stay here in Trick Tower.” Tel said. “This spell does not work in slime, lava or acid.”
“That’s… good to know.” I said learning of things possibly to come. I pulled out two keychains and set them down on the counter. “Anyways Tel, this is for you and Velimnicus. Bring these to Plyne for a meal on me at the Dapper Crate in Green’s Peak. You’ll want to try the [Rainbow Curry]. Trust me.”
I gestured to my shirt which Tel stared at with a raised brow as he looked down to the pair of key chains.
“Sure.” He said with an intruiged smile. “Thank you for your patronage, MykaReviews.”
My watch beeped: nine am on the dot as we left the establishment. I pulled up my city map again finding our blue dot location in the north western side of the crescent shaped city limits. A far yellow dot sat on the outskirts of the map near some indicated mountains.
“That’s the quarry one. I think we should do it first since it’s the furthest one out.”
“Sounds reasonable.” I said eyeing the long winding path it looked like it would take to get there. We set off but I continued to look at the translucent map as we went along. [::Clucks for Bucks::] and [::Ghoulish Guests::] were in the north eastern quadrant of the crescent. One lone dot sat in the bay for [::Lost Necklace::], and [::Hands for Hire::] and [::Prevalent Pest Problems::] both sat near Clear Water Tours and the bay.
“Depending on where the drop off is for the quarry quest we have a few options…” I said trailing off as I poked around the map tab in my HUD. Iagan nodded seeing my point.
“Two sets of quests on opposite sides of the city. The good paying ones seem to be near the coast so we’ll probably do those first.”
We reached the edge of the city and headed out along the road that led to the quarry. The smell of forest and hot humid air hung all around us as there was no sea breeze to cool it off. Thankfully the path was an easy trek with no super steep slopes and we arrived at the quarry after an hour of leisurely walking. The quarry itself was filled with bright white stone that nearly glistened in the morning sunlight like an inverted snowy mountain. A lone foreman was busy loading large chunks of stones into a cart where the hitched cream colored horse waited lazily.
“Need a hand?” Iagan called out as he trotted up to the man summoning the paper he’d taken from the job board. The foreman finished loading the stone and wiped the sweat from his brow across his sun tanned arm. “We found a posting that you’d need some bodies to take this into town.”
“Then you’re just in time.” The man said as Iagan handed him the paper. I arrived with a light wave as I summoned my camera and snagged a picture of the glittering quarry and a better shot of the horse.
Ker-chunk
Ker-chunk
They filed themselves away in the compendium as the foreman closed up the back of the cart, locking it with a metal looping pin.
“Alright so these go straight to the docks off pier eleven to a man named Grimsby. You don’t have to worry about off loading as the ship’s not set to arrive until mid afternoon. Grimsby will be the one to pay you upon completion if you show him this symbol.” The foreman said taking a nub of graphite from within his pocket and marking a symbol on the back of the paper before handing it back to Iagan.
“Pier eleven and look for Grimsby, can do!” Iagan smiled as he hopped up on the front of the cart.
“Be easy on Toothpick here. He’s not one much for speed.”
“Toothpick!” I gasped, approaching the horse slowly and patting it on the shoulder. He towered over me easily as most things in life do. “What a perfect name for a perfect boy!”
Toothpick nickered and shook his blonde mane. I joined Iagan on the cart and squeezed in next to him on the driver’s seat. He shook the reigns and Toothpick started the long walk back into town. Toothpick clopped slowly along the rocky trails, his steps echoing lightly off the rock until we reached the bend that led back through the forest. The shade of the canopy was a welcome relief from the high sun that hung overhead.
“You must feel right at home behind the reigns.” I chuckled watching Iagan drive. His face scrunched up.
“What?”
“You know, you’re Texan. You guys all have horses and stuff you ride to school.”
Slowly Iagan turned to me with a look of incredulous disbelief. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“What?” I asked as we rumbled along the road. He dragged a palm down his face.
“I don’t know why everyone seems to think all Texans are cowboy hicks. I own my own car and everything.”
“So you’ve never ridden a horse before?”
“I never said that.” He said with a smirk as he guided Toothpick along a bend in the road. “My family owns a ranch and yes we own horses. My dad’s real big into rodeo competition.”
“Is that why you were so good at wrangling the bear?” I said pantomiming the bull riders one handed hold on my seat.
“Experience helped for sure. I was more of the roping and barrel racing side of the competition when we’d go to compete. My brothers were the wranglers and the bull riders. They were state champions for a few years in a row not too long ago. You should come down to see one sometime. There’s one in the spring that’s the important one if you’re looking for a real show.”
“Sure. Just send me a reminder once we get back.” I spent lots of time visiting video game worlds for my job as a reviewer but I didn’t often find myself with excuses to travel to other places in real life.
“Hey speaking of getting back, have you found the log out yet?” Iagan asked.
“Is there one?” I blinked looking around my HUD for a section for options. In my several days of being here in Trick Tower it had never once occurred to me to try to look for a way to leave. I checked my watch for any indication, finding nothing of the sort.
“Well, I mean surely we must be getting close to the end of the Beta Test areas right? Usually game studios only let beta testers have a go at a certain portion of the game. This already feels like a lot of content…” Iagan trailed off.
“It probably ends at Floor 2.” I said, “That seems like a more natural place to cut off at if Roqor Studios is looking for data on our class builds.”
The sentiment had been drilled into our heads during the lawyer orientation when we were signing papers. Roqor Studios legal team made it very clear that they were interested in seeing how well each class fared while going through Trick Tower. That the data would be used to adjust each class and the rest of the world accordingly once the Beta Test had concluded.
“I suppose.” Iagan said with a frown. “I wonder how long we’ve actually been in here for.”
In game time was five days for me, four days for Iagan and I hadn’t had a shower yet. Been in the water a few times but not for bathing so I wasn’t as grubby as I could have been thank noodles. Although now that it’d been brought to my attention I pulled my hat down onto my head just a teensy bit more.
Toothpick pulled us into town and down along the pier where we were set to drop off our quarry at pier eleven. A familiar short man greeted us as we rode in, Grimsby as it turned out was the betting man from the skill challenge the night before.
“Mr.BigwIggy!” He grinned as Toothpick slowed to a stop. “Didn’t expect to see you come through here. Chasing coin still today I see?”
“Gotta earn a living somehow,” Iagan said getting down and helping me down as well. Iagan handed off the letter with the symbol the foreman had drawn on it.
“You got it here early which between you and me is way better than waiting for Wallis to bring it in himself.” Grimsby said with a nod. “Looks like everythin’ here’s in order too so let me get you set up with your payment: 30 gold as promised.”
“You mean 30 gold for each of us right?” Iagan asked as he accepted the first sack Grimsby produced.
“Nope.” Grimsby said without missing a beat, “One cart, one payment.”
“But the way it was written…” Iagan protested, gesturing to the posting paper.
“Didn’t say anything about multiple payments for groups. 30 gold flat out.” Grimsby held it up and pointed directly to the section on payment.
“That’s a bummer.” I said, walking over and giving Toothpick another set of pats as he bobbed his head. “But at least we got to meet this cutie pie.”
“Good news, you can come back and see him again tomorrow too. We’re always needing people to bring carts in so they can be loaded and shipped out to Dawnrise on time. I hear the King’s got something big planned for all these shipments and he depends on us to keep to schedule.”
“Probably not tomorrow since we’ve got our stroll but Monday I’m sure we could.” I said as we said our goodbyes and headed out. Iagan sent the coin away into his inventory dejectedly.
“I really thought we were both going to get paid. God what a wasted trip.”
“Eh. It was a nice detour to say the least.”