When Pete woke up, he was on a pile of hay in the corner of the room where Mod let him stay. He looked to where Zoey slept in the bed. She lied above the blanket, arms crossed over her chest. She looked so peaceful, he decided to let her sleep.
With haste, he changed from his pajamas to his Pizza Place clothes and snuck into the bakery’s sales area. Once there, he noticed Mod speaking with Hope near one of the dine-in tables. “Hi, Hope. You’re here early today.” Pete told the pixie.
“Hurry, over here, Pete.” Hope waved with her right hand, pointing down at the table with her left. “You have to see our uniforms.”
Pete hurried over as commanded and looked at the drawings. “These are amazing. You did this yourself?”
“Yessir,” she landed on the table and began to do her version of the mashed potato next to the drawings. “I stayed up super late. Like it was super late. It was so late. Then I did them all. Then when I finished, I went to bed. It was hard work.”
Mod entered the conversation. “Pete, I’d like you to take those to Tay and Joey. Commission them to make their respective parts of the uniforms.
Pete blushed when remembering his encounter with Tay from the previous day.
“Is something wrong?” Mod asked.
“No, nothing.” Pete fibbed. “Everything is good. I’ll take Zoey, and we’ll take care of this. No problem. If their past work is any indicator, we will have new uniforms today.”
“Pete,” Zoey’s voice came from a crack in the bedroom door. “I need some help.”
“Right,” Pete shouted back, looking in the direction of the bedroom. It surprised him that Zoey was awake; she appeared to be in such a deep sleep before. “I’ll be right there.” Pete turned back to the pixie. “And you keep up the good work. I love your creativity.”
Pete padded back to the room and looked at the door. It was still cracked open. He held the doorknob and knocked. “Can I come in?”
“Yes…” Her answer seemed meek, not characteristic of Zoey.
Pete pushed the door open, finding Zoey sitting on the edge of the bed, staring gat him with wide eyes.
“What’s the matter?” Pete asked, sitting next to her.
“Last night, I didn’t get a good chance to look at my status screen.” She began, a somber tone in her voice. “I was going to look at it. Then Mod came in, and I was so focused on closing the prompt that I forgot to read it. This morning, I looked at it…and…I have some questions…” She looked down. “And some concerns…”
“What questions and concerns?” Pete put his hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“Pete,” She turned her eyes to him. “On your status screen…the part that says race…what does it say for your race?”
“Human…why?”
“On mine,” she explained. “It says I’m a vampire…”
“A vampire?” Pete smiled. “You’re joking, right? Pulling my leg?” When she shook her head no and smiled, showing her long fangs. “Oh, man.” Pete drew back. “You are a vampire.”
“I am a vampire,” she nodded.
“Do you want to…you know…eat people?” Pete asked.
“I was fine eating the pizza.” She told him. “It filled me up, gave me energy, and everything. I mean, since I don’t know what blood tastes like, it’s hard for me to crave it, right?”
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“I guess,” Pete agreed, stroking his chin between his thumb and finger. “We will have to ask around, find out what we can about vampires. Until we know more, we shouldn’t tell anyone about you being one.”
Mod’s voice called from the dining area. “You guys okay in there?”
“We’re fine. We’ll be right out,” Pete shouted back. Then he turned to Zoey, asking. “You ready for the day? Wait…does sunlight hurt you?”
“I’m not sure,” She admitted.
“Well, let’s find out,” Pete said, standing and moving to the window with closed curtains. He lifted his hand and grabbed the inside of the curtain. “Ready?”
She moved to a corner away from the window and nodded.
He cracked open the curtain, letting a sliver of sunlight beam in.
“It gives me a headache.” She explained. “I don’t like it, but I’m not afraid of it or anything.” She moved closer to it, creeping within inches of where the beam created a small rectangle on the floor. Then she touched it.
Nothing happened. The direct light didn’t burn her. It didn’t hurt. It warmed her hand like usual. Looking at it gave her a headache, though. She looked at Pete and explained. “I need a cloak, or sunglasses, or something. The light doesn’t hurt me. Even so, going out in the sun without something to keep it from my eyes sounds excruciating.”
As luck had it, Mod kept a hooded cloak in his store. When they asked to borrow it, he seemed confused. Why would someone need a heavy cloak in the warmer, fall weather? Even so, he relented, lending it to Zoey.
After this, Zoey and Pete began toward the smith with Hope’s designs, ready to commission the new uniforms.
As they walked, Pete explained the basics of how to open and close an inventory. Then he asked, “Do you have a job? A job tree?”
From beneath the cloak, she smiled. “yes. I have one.”
“Well,” Pete asked. “What is it?”
“Same as always.” She said.
“No way…” Pete grinned. “You are a vampire Paladin? Is that allowed?”
“I guess.” She shrugged.
“Have you looked at the job tree yet?” He asked.
“I have a job tree? That’s awesome.” She questioned. “How do I open it?”
Pete explained, “You think about it, and it pops up.”
“There it is,” she confirmed. “How do I get job points?”
“You need to do job-related quests,” Pete explained. “I’m not sure how to get them. Mine popped up on their own as I started making pizza.” Pete pulled up his own job screen, showing he had more job points than he had before. It must have been from leveling up after he defeated the Turkey Titan. “It looks like I’ve received them every time I level up, too.” He closed it.
“How did you get experience to level up?” She asked.
“For me, it came from beating these tomato plant monsters. It was like the points tied to the quest I got. I’m still trying to figure it out for sure.” Pete explained. “That reminds me. I guess they have a law here that you can only level up by doing things related to your job.”
“What do you mean?” Zoey questioned. “Like no power leveling?”
“Exactly,” Pete scratched under his right eye with his right finger. “They call it a law of the moderators. It seems the moderators don’t like people getting too much stronger than other people.”
“That’s lame.” Zoey sighed.
At that point, they reached the smith.
When they arrived, the smith worked outside at the anvil. He was in the middle of his typical heating, cooling, and pounding metal routine. When they neared him, he didn’t look up. He used his tongues to hold up a piece of metal and said. “Hey, guys…look at this.”
It was a round cylinder that tapered on each end. A three-inch diameter reminded Pete of a tailpipe’s muffler. “Nice,” Pete said. “What’s it for?”
“Dude, it’ll be awesome. You don’t even know.” Joey the smith grinned. “But I’ll have to show you when I finish. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”
“I look forward to it,” Pete said. “We have another commission for you.
“Sounds like fun.” He grinned. “What did you have in mind this time?”
“Have you been to Mod’s bakery in the last two days?” Pete asked.
“Dude,” the smith smiled. “The pizza is so good. Not as good as some of Wanda’s weird drinks for boosting energy, but pizza is close.”
Zoey giggled and whispered so only Pete could hear. “It’s like all the caffeine drinkers back in the store. They love their energy drinks.”
Pete smiled in agreement.
The smith continued. “You need something for the store? For the pizzas?”
“Actually,” Pete materialized Hope’s designs. “I have these images for you. Let me show them to you.”
The smith looked at the drawings. At the same time, Pete explained which parts would be metal, their sizes, and how many he would need. “Do you think you can do it?”
“No problem.” The smith grinned. “I can have all this done in an hour. Come back then.”
“Will do,” Pete said. “Wait…how much will it cost?”
“200 len.” Mod had given Pete len to cover the charge. Even so, 200 len was a big hit. Then again, they needed uniforms.
“Alright,” Pete smiled. “We’ll be back in an hour.”
As they walked away, Pete looked at Zoey. “It’s time to go to Wanda’s.”
“Wanda’s?” Zoey asked. “Why?
“Two reasons,” Pete explained. “One, I’ve never been there, and I’m dying to see what’s inside. Two, you said you needed sunglasses. If anywhere in Greenlake is going to have them, it will be Wanda.”