Pete chose the easy way, which meant he followed the guard to the mayor’s office. Pete wasn’t sure what the hard way might have been. Did it mean the guard would have tied a rope around his wrists and dragged him? Would the guard have lifted Pete like a sack of potatoes and carried him that way?
As Pete followed the guard through the streets of the town, he was able to get a close look at the buildings and houses. Almost every home had a picture frame window pointing in the direction of the lake. With the way the terrain sloped downward, Pete imagined each of those windows provided an excellent view.
The businesses—he realized—tended to be in short, wide buildings with a single story. They used batwing doors for the entrances with colorful signs by the doors. The signs indicated what business was inside: a bakery, a smith, an apothecary, a tailor, a jeweler, a carpenter, a general goods and supplies store, a specialty clothing boutique, a school, and an inn.
When they went by one store, he read its sign:
Wanda’s Weird Windmill of Wonderous Widgets and Wild Waffler.
Through its windows, Pete noticed jars with glowing liquid, bright crystals, and shimmering bits of ore. Inside, a light shifted, casting strange rainbow-colored rays on the street outside. As impressive as it was, Pete wondered why they called it a windmill. It looked like a standard cabin to him.
Unlike the dirt road leaving town, most of the streets in town were gray brick. It amazed Pete how the masons who constructed the streets organized each of the bricks. They lined and packed the bricks where no edges poked up. With his foot, he couldn’t feel where one brick ended and one began.
As Pete walked, he had to be careful because pedestrians filled the streets. When Pete saw those Pedestrians up close, he confirmed three things. First, most were human. Second, the group of bearded men that he saw leave the cabin were dwarf height. When he and the guard walked by them, they were whistling. Third, the bright lights that he’d seen before were pixies.
Green bushes, vines, and trees covered their whole town. And he also noticed red, funnel-shaped flowers growing from the vines and orange flowers sprouting from the bushes.
As beautiful as the town was, Pete felt disappointed. With all the prompts still blocking the center of his vision, having to aim his eyes to the side to see anything, he couldn’t help but realize he was missing out.
The guard led Pete down two streets and over three. Then they came to a single-story cabin with fading white paint. Green shingles created the roof. They accented reddish-pink outlines around the windows. City planners designed the building so two rectangles met at their edges. It gave the edifice a distinct L shape. A single set of batwing doors rested in the longer rectangle. It provided the only visible way in and out of the building.
Near the doorway, flags blew. One of the flags was solid green with white lines forming a circle in the flag’s center. The ringed border provided the frame for an image of a lake. He guessed the flag was Greenlake’s.
A second flag had a royal blue background, golden thread forming dragons in each of the corners. The dragons appeared to be wingless and swimming with long narrow bodies. The center was the image of a castle’s watchtower, sewn with the same gold.
The guard guided Pete past the flags and into the doors. From there, they turned right, following the stem of the L to a closed door at the end of the hall. A plaque on the door read:
Mayor Yam Hopler
The guard knocked three, quick times. Knock, knock, knock. To accompany the knocks, he shouted, “It’s Nick. This is urgent business.”
“Come in.” A woman’s voice answered from the other side.
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The guard pushed the door open, and Pete followed him in. It reminded Pete of the time he had to go to the principal’s office when he was in Kindergarten. He didn’t know it was against the rules to bring candy to class, but he learned his lesson. From then on, he always learned and worked to understand the rules. It was the first and last time he got in trouble at school.
Ordinary people make eye contact by looking straight ahead into the eyes of the person across from them. With the prompts, Pete couldn’t do this. Instead, he stood with his left shoulder ahead of him, looking at the mayor out of the corner of his eye.
She sat at a wooden desk. It had four, square oak legs, connected by a center arch. A single heavy plank of what looked like the same wood formed a neat rectangular desktop. On it sat a book, some sheets of paper, and a quill dipped in ink for writing.
At first glance, he knew the woman wasn’t human. She was shorter…rounder. A solid, red stocking cap rested atop her blond hair. A striped, blue shirt covered her stout body. Her round nose curled upward near the point. She was a gnome, he realized. Her wide, blue eyes stared back at him, blinking with confusion.
“I’m sorry,” she glanced at the guard and spoke fast. It was like she was afraid she would run out of time to say what she wanted to say. “But what is he doing? Why is he looking at me like that? Is he broken? Did you break someone, again?”
The guard grumbled, but before he could do anything else, Pete answered. “I’m so sorry. I have a condition. I don’t mean any offense by it.” As soon as Pete spoke, the words Yam Hopler LVL 7 appeared above the woman’s head. Pete decided he’d have to get used to people’s names and levels being above their heads. It seemed like it would happen to everyone when he was talking to them.
“A condition?” Her eyes widened further. “Oh, gosh…is it contagious? Please, tell me it isn’t contagious. I hope it’s not contagious. Wait, who is he, anyway? Why did you bring him here? Is he a garbage man? Life in this town would be so much easier if we had someone with garbage man as their job. Wait…did the garbage make him contagious?”
“Unfortunately, he’s not a garbage man. Also, he’s not sick. From what I can tell, he’s fine,” the guard interrupted. “Aside from breaking one of the laws of the moderators.”
Laws of the moderators? Pete wondered, what in the world is a law of the moderators?
“Oh, no,” She frowned, wrinkles of concern coming to her face. Her eyes shifted back and forth between Pete and the guard. “Is he stuck with his eyes like that as a punishment? Which law did he break?”
Yeah, Pete wondered, turning his head to look at the guard, which law did I break?
“He performed an action outside the scope of his job duties.” When the guard spoke, disappointment filled his words. His drooping mustache highlighted the sentiment.
Pete turned his attention back to the mayor.
The wrinkles in her forehead had deepened. Her lower lip quivered. “And…” she hesitated, her fast words stuck in her throat, her eyes unblinking. “and…and…and… you are sure he’s not looking at me like that to cause other trouble? Is he taunting me? No… Are you sure it isn’t punishment?” Her eyes went back and forth before settling on Pete, “stop looking at me like that.”
“I’m sorry,” Pete took a step back, squaring his shoulders and inclining his head down. “I didn’t mean to…never mind. I’ll stare at the floor.” Of course, he wasn’t staring at the floor. He was staring at prompt about a .5 slashing defense proficiency.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” She asked. He sure didn’t. “How could you be so reckless?”
“I’m sorry,” Pete repeated. “I’m new here. I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know?” Her voice was softer, tinged with confusion. “You didn’t know? How did you not know? Did you hit your head or something?”
“I did,” Pete nodded, “when I fell out of a tree. There was a cat. It’s a long story. Can you explain to me what I did? Can you explain why it’s bad? Can you do it like you’re explaining it to a child for the first time?”
“Are you serious?” She asked; he could feel her eyes go over to the guard, and she repeated the question to him. “Is he serious?”
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“Based on my interactions with him and the strange clothes he’s wearing,” the guard sighed. “Yes, I believe he might have hit his head. It is the best explanation for why someone would act so reckless.”
“Alright,” she looked back to Pete, explaining. “The moderators want to maintain balance in the world. To do so, they don’t want one person to become more powerful than any other person.
“The best way they can do this is by making one simple rule. You are only allowed to level up when it is a direct result of doing your job…or if by accident you do something like stepping on an ant. That is the only way you can gain experience.”
“What happens when you break the rule?” Pete asked.
“When you break the rule?” The mayor considered the question. “It depends on how grievous the violation. In the past, the moderators have destroyed whole towns to punish one person.”
“But if it relates to my job,” Pete asked, “It’s okay for me to do it?”
“Right,” she answered, “so I need you to look me in the eye right now and tell me one thing. What is your job?”
“Well,” Pete looked up, guessing where her eyes might be behind the prompt—he was looking about six inches to the left of her—and he answered. “I’m a pizzaman…” Along with his words, a prompt appeared:
Congratulations! You received a main job! Your job is pizzaman!