The [::Hands for Hire::] quest was the closest one to our drop point for our shipment so we started making a beeline that direction. I clicked back into my HUD to refresh myself on the quest details.
[::Hands for Hire::]
[Help Bobbin’s Bookstore offload and stock their latest shipment of books]
[Reward: 30 gold]
“Shouldn’t be too hard.” I mumbled to myself, dismissing it once I was through. I paid more attention to the shops we passed along the way, taking time to do some quick window shopping for later once we’d filled our purses. We passed several clothing boutiques, a few smiths, and finally found the store we were looking for. The sign for the bookstore was rectangular for the most part, with the left side taking the form of a bobbin of thread with a needle sticking out. The lettering across it’s face was painted to look like it was sewn into the wood itself, forming the name Bobbin’s Bookstore.
Iagan held the door open for me as a set of ringing bells jangled against the wooden door. The interior was cozy, almost like a living room with assorted tables and chairs throughout it. A woman sat curled up on the couch, feet tucked under her dress book in hand.
“Oh, customers!” She said looking up in surprise, sitting up properly. “Welcome to Bobbin’s Bookstore, I’m Bobbin. What can I help you find?”
“Hello, we’re actually here to help with your shipment?” I told her.
“Oh, the [::Hands for Hire::] then? Wonderful! I was beginning to think no one would answer for it.” Bobbin croaked out a chuckle as she hopped to her feet. She was short in stature but stood to my height-ish. She had hair as black as the ocean at night twisted into coiled strands that sat tucked under a bandana and dark skin that complimented the rouge of her dress.
She led us into the backroom where crates upon crates sat stacked along the walls, presumably packed full of books.
“I’m offerin’ 30 gold a box, sorted and catalogued appropriately including general category.” Bobbin said walking up to a podium with a large ledger book and quill. “Please record everything here in this master list.”
“Sounds easy enough, we’ll get to work and see how much we can get done. We’ve got a few extra stops to make along our way today.”
Bobbin nodded in understanding. “Oh certainly, I’m just glad for the help. I just finished my lunch but I can fix you a little something if you’re hungry.”
“Oh wow, that’d be swell, thanks.” I said my stomach getting ready to rumble at the mention of lunches. “We haven’t eaten lunch yet.”
“Anything for folks who’ll come help me with this!” Bobbin left us to it and exited the room, shutting the door behind her.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked as Iagan pulled up the chair and sat down ready to write.
“That this is going to be a large chunk of our afternoon?” He snarked with a roll of his eyes.
“Nope!” I grinned as I popped the lid off the first box surprised to find hay as a packing material and held up the first book. An older volume with a dull brown cover and no title along the spine. I opened it up and flipped through it as my Journal tab updated with the new addition of ‘The Written Prophecies of the Mad Elvish Queen’. I waited for another moment as nothing bad seemed to instantly happen now that I’d copied it for my personal library. “I get to add every single book we find to my collection!”
“Isn’t that stealing?” He asked.
“If it was stealing would it be an included feature in the game?” I challenged. “It’s like memory recall, you can’t outlaw flawless memory even if it’s through a game HUD.”
“I really don’t want to have to bail you out of jail for going on a book theft spree.” Iagan sighed. “I can think of a thousand different better ways and reasons to get thrown in jail.”
“You’re free to try your own ideas, but just think of how much information about the Tower there is to be gained from just sifting through all of these! Maybe I’ll find a spell book or a skill book!” I said reading the name of the books aloud for Iagan’s benefit as I pulled more free from the box. Iagan dully and dutifully wrote them down into the ledger.
The Written Prophecies of the Mad Elvish Queen
The Laudable Labors of Lord Lafeek the Lover
Hags and How to Handle Them
The Hidden Surprise
The Ballad of Tennrick the Brave
Fabulous Breads and Biscuits: Secrets of The Hearth right in your home!
Floor 1 Atlas & Almanac
That last one was worth the quest itself as my HUD updated with a much better looking section of maps. Ranging from topographical, to weather patterns predicted out for the year to population census maps where most of the populace sat squarely in Dawnrise on the western side of the map. Every book happily updated in my Journal tab, whole and complete I couldn’t wait to peek in at them later.
I nearly fell into the box scraping the bottom looking for more books to take out when Bobbin came back in through the door carrying a tray of triangular finger sandwiches and two glasses of a frosty opaque liquid.
“Made a little something for you both.” She smiled setting it down on one of the empty side tables. “How’s it coming?”
“One box down and accounted for so far!” I grinned, resting back down on my heels, picking the stray strands of hay out of my hair.
“My, you two are making quick work of this.” Bobbin said with relief. “It’s just been so overwhelming looking at all these boxes knowing I have to get started sooner or later. Sadly later doesn’t bring in the coin but either way I appreciate the help.”
“And we appreciate the coin.” Iagan set the quill down and wiped his now ink stained fingers across his darkened pants. “30 gold per box is a pretty hefty price for only having seven books each.”
“The numbers vary in each box depending on the distributor. Looks like you got lucky with one of the ones from Floor 7.” Bobbin explained. “Most of them aren’t that empty, but I pay for quality and they’ve never let me down.”
Sure enough, now that she mentioned it and I looked and across all the rest of the boxes were some varying designs and logos on them that my HUD highlighted but didn’t tag.
“Wow! Do you mind if I take pictures of those logos for my compendium?” I asked summoning my camera to my hand.
“Oh uh, sure I guess?” She said with a tilt of her head as I set the images up in my viewfinder. “You’re making a compendium?”
Ker-chunk
Ker-chunk
Ker-chunk
“Yup!” I said returning to the sandwiches, ignoring the updates my HUD displayed. I’d look at them later tonight. I pulled out one of my key chains handing it over to her. She took it and the bees in my chest ignited with a fiery hum. A chance to [Haggle] had apparently arisen out of our simple conversation. I clicked into my wrist HUD to check my progress of the Floor as a whole, which showed I was a little over 35% done with my collecting. The bees thrummed as an idea came to mind. “I’m working really hard to catalogue the beauty of the whole floor and make a walkabout guide for anyone who wants to visit. I’m about 40% done with it currently.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“That’s impressive.” Bobbin’s voice raised curiously looking between me and the key chain. “You know I’ve never traveled outside of Seamyst before.”
“Really? It’s so beautiful, you‘ve got to get out there and explore the floor sometime!” I pulled up my camera and brought up the picture of Iagan mid-splash above the waters of the lagoon. “There is this one really beautiful lagoon back up the river between here and Green’s Peak that is absolutely stunning.”
Bobbin nodded her eyes not leaving the small screen as she stared. “And you took these yourself?”
“Of course.” I grinned, clicking through to show off the other sites I’d captured through our travels. “I’ve got a lot I’m getting ready to photograph over the next few days while we check out the bay. So hopefully that will boost my percentage although I still have to put it all together and compile it into a nice format. It should be done by the time I’m finished traveling around Floor 1.”
“Well, I wish you the best of luck on that.” She said, “It sounds like quite the undertaking.”
“You have no idea.” I laughed, remembering the charging bear. I pointed to the key chain still in her hands.“I hope you’ll pick up a copy someday once it’s finished, it’ll be under my pen name: MykaReviews.”
“I’ll keep my eye out for it if this is the kind of quality I can expect to find.” Bobbin smiled. The bees died down as she turned and left, the door thudding shut behind her. I let out a sigh and took to my sandwich. The [Haggle] didn’t go exactly as I’d expected but she was interested enough which meant sales in the future.
Iagan leaned on the table his chin resting on his fist. “That went well.”
“Well enough I guess. I feel like I could have done better but you can’t win them all over immediately I suppose.” I shrugged finishing another triangle of sandwich.
“How many more of these do we want to get done?” He asked turning his attention to the veritable forest of stacked crates.
“Well, we could just try to do all the ones that had the same logo as the one we just did. Those will probably have less to catalogue in the long run, or we could move on to the next quest that’s closest and save these until after the [::Seabed Stroll::] for guaranteed money.”
The next closest quest we’d picked up from the posting board was the [::Prevalent Pest Problems::] quest that dealt with the apparent rat problem in the patisserie. I pulled up my map in my HUD noting that the marker placed the location a few streets inland from the edge of the bay.
“Let’s do one more box and then we’ll move on to the next one,” Iagan suggested as he took up residence back in his spot to write them all down. I finished the last of my meal and headed back too. We made short work of another one of the boxes with a different logo that was filled with more historical texts and almanac records. They all filed away into my HUD in the appropriate tab to be looked over later.
Bobbin paid us each a small coin sack of 30 gold and thanked us as we set back out onto the street. The salt air greeted us immediately and the warm mid-afternoon sunlight peeked out from behind the sparse lazy clouds that dotted the sky. We wound through the streets and found a bright building accented in pinks that stuck out like a sore thumb from the buildings around it. A small rounded table with a pair of chairs sat on the opposite side of the door from the grand display of sweets in the window.
Macarons of several dozen different colors sat on a three-tier dish set prominently in the middle. Swirl cakes, eclairs, sweet rolls, tarts, strudels, and even some simple braided loaves of bread sat neatly around it in an elegant display. Small pink and white flowers and nuts dotted the spaces in between looking like a confectionary charcuterie board.
Ker-chunk
That one was for me rather than the compendium as I love a good charcuterie spread and this one rivaled the rest of the best. Certainly better than my make shift home made ones whenever I had late night munchies cravings. The sweet smells of pastry filled the air as we entered. The interior was lined with cool gray stone along the floor and a glass case that stretched across the length all the way to the back wall filled with more sweet treats. A woman from behind the countertop looked over at us with a smile.
“Welcome to Polished Pair’s Patisserie, our special today is our chocolate cannoli.”
“That sounds amazing,” I said trying not to drool.
“We’re here for the [::Prevalent Pest Problem::]?” Iagan said. The woman’s eyes widened, darting over to the door leading into the back rooms of the building and then back to the front door we’d just come through.
“Great! I’m glad there weren’t customers around to hear that.” Her voice fluttered in annoyance through her grit teeth. “This way.”
She moved along the counter and flipped open the thin wooden bar top at the end. I filed in after Iagan and set it back down. She guided us through the doorway into a back room kitchen that was stocked full to the brim of all the ingredients they would need to keep their store well stocked. Only everything was laid about haphazardly, stacked in as many places as they could fit.
“Down there.” The woman said pointing to a side door to the immediate left of the frame. “Damn rats won’t stop getting into everything we have.”
“What can you tell us about the rats we’re going to find?” Iagan asked.
“They’re rats and they’re hungry.” The woman huffed, narrowing her eyes. “What more could you want to know?”
“We’ll do our best to get them out of here for you.” I tried to reassure her, seeing how Iagan’s charm was apparently tapped out for the day.
“Sure.” She said with a frown, leaving us to it. Iagan opened the door to darkness, a small railing off to the side led further down into the basement. Iagan drew out [Fog Machine], but only flames licked the edges of the blade casting an orange glow in a small area around him.
“Wait!” I grabbed his forearm, stopping him from storming in. “Fire might catch the building if we’re not careful. Let me try: Light.”
I held my hand out and summoned the tiny ball of sunlight which brightened the room considerably to the point that I had to put my shades back down. Iagan squinted and stood back.
“Alright then. Ladies first.”
Sun in one hand I summoned my fire poker baton to my free hand and approached the threshold. Slowly and carefully I creaked down the wooden stairs as the sun chased the shadows away. As soon as the stairway opened up into the room I peeked in, holding my hand out like a flashlight. Similar to the kitchens above, the space was filled with cabinets and empty flour stained countertops their contents relocated upstairs. A pair of tables sat in the center making a large island space where a pair of rolling pins sat discarded. Along the back wall was a set of three deep sink basins filled with discarded cooking pans.
At the sight of the light of a hundred pairs of tiny red rubies turned to look and the hairs on my neck stood on end. I blinked and they scattered, their paws scratching against the floor as they fled to any available space to hide. I let out an audible shudder as Iagan approached behind me also stooping to take a look into the room as he rested his hand on the ceiling.
“It’s 2 gold a tail reward so let’s get cracking.” He grinned.
“Yeah, you have fun with that.” I murmured trying to will my legs to follow him down the stairs. Iagan wasted no time jabbing his sword underneath the nearest cabinet where the rats had skittered. Tiny squeaking screams rose in chorus as a mound of black scampered out in a cluster fleeing. I didn’t bother to stop my scream as they hooked around heading straight for me. I leaped back up onto the stairs hoping that would be enough height to be away from them.
“GET THEM MICA! DON’T LET THEM ESCAPE THROUGH THE DOOR!” Iagan shouted bringing his sword down, ending a few more. The swarm reached the foot of the stairs and piling on top of one another slowly formed enough to begin to climb it. Their red eyes staring at me with a hellfire fueled hatred, their jagged teeth long and hungry as they screeched. I swiped them back with my baton but they still clamored up the steps with a fierce fervor.
It was then that I realized Iagan hadn’t shut the door behind him on his way down. They weren’t trying to attack me, they were trying to escape into the actual bakery. Starving rats who wanted nothing more than to feast on confectionaries. I had to stop them from escaping or that would be more tails we couldn’t turn in.
I made one last swipe with my baton, staving back the daring rats who tried lunging at me. The baton vanished back into my inventory and I turned tail and ran up the stairs. The piling rats were slower than my legs as I took two steps at a time. I slammed the door shut and put myself between the rats and the small crack under the door that was their last hope. I summoned my towel and quickly stuffed it into the gap.
The rats hissed in displeasure and still continued in their reverse waterfall up the stairs toward me. My mind flashed to my first battle against the oversized rat the Tower called a Rat King.
“Iagan!” I screamed, the weight of my camera landing neatly in my hand as I held it up.
Ker-chunk
The flash turned everything into a bright white, the only contrast of color came from the red beads of the hundreds of eyes that stared open wide. A shrill chorus of screams filled the narrow stairwell as the rats writhed forming a river of black fur. I sent the camera back and summoned the baton again and set to work as Iagan rounded the stairs cornering whatever was left. Iagan dispatched them as I putted them down the stairs to him.
“Noodles. Noodles. Noodles!” I shuddered with each rat that tumbled. Soon the whole pile lay still and we caught our breath. I sank to the step finally able to see the new windows that popped up as Iagan started looting.
[Weapons Skill Increase: Baton level 1]
[Floor 1 Animals 10/25]
Over half of the tiny bodies had poofed away into mist and Iagan finished up the rest with a big smile on his face.
“One of these rats had a piece of chalk.” He chuckled.
“I’ll take that.”
Iagan sent it over via the trade window and it found a home among all my knick knacks I’d aquired.
“How many rat tails did we end up with?”
A wicked grin came across his face “Over a hundred.”