Taylor Lynn spent the next half hour comforting Jay from the panic and anxiety he wasn’t actually feeling. The more she tried to make him feel better, the smaller he felt.
“Are you going to be okay if I go talk talk to Lester?” she finally asked hesitantly. “He’s free right now, and I want to see if I can convince him. About the island. The sooner we start planning—the better.”
Jay was excited to hear her willingness to talk to Lester to join the island expedition. They would at least have one tank for the island. Jay hoped he could convince Sarah not to go so her treatment wouldn’t be risked. But he doubted she would agree to stay behind.
“Yeah. You’ve done enough already. Too much, really.”
Taylor Lynn patted his shoulder, waved a little, and disappeared from the alleyway.
Jay looked around, halfway expecting Ichibad to pop up out of nowhere. The Cat Sith didn’t appear, so he walked back to Nora’s. When he returned, he would need to buy new equipment, especially loading up on bolts. As he logged out, his mind was spinning with how many bolts he should stock for an expedition to an island with an unknown duration.
With a big stretch, Jay stepped out of the full dive pod. His body wasn’t nearly so wrecked since he had only spent a little while in the game. All in all, his meeting with Mr. Georges hadn’t been that long ago.
He checked his email and found a waiting email from Ted Ignes. The brief letter was generally amiable, explaining that his commitment to providing legal services was as firm as ever. The email asked Jay to set up a meeting with Ted Inges at his earliest convenience by calling the front desk.
Jay sent him a moving image of a man in a suit pointing viciously. It was appropriately emblazoned with the words: You’re fired!
He couldn’t resist.
In his fridge, he found a snack in the form of a cheese stick. Looking around the apartment, he found it was mainly tidy from his previous efforts the past several days. Despite that, he spent half an hour moving things around his apartment to avoid what he needed to do.
At the end of the half-hour, he set himself to the first: texting Claire. Jay wrote her a polite text inviting her to dinner the following evening at seven. He wasn’t sure what the typical working hours at Tumult Corp. were, but if she wasn’t free by seven, she wouldn’t likely be available for dinner.
With a sigh, Jay let go of his unfounded apprehension. The feeling was ridiculous, but it had taken courage to invite Claire out. His next task was the one he was truly dreading. His homework.
Mr. Georges had promised Jay would be paid after he completed his report on the work done so far throughout his leveling. Jay needed to keep many details secret, at least the fascinating stuff. Instead, he would imply the time-honored tradition of stuffing essays full of absolute crap. If they were looking for as much detail as possible, Jay would provide it.
Sitting at his computer, Jay cracked his knuckles and briefly closed his eyes. He imagined the moment logging into the game. Beginning his essay, he spent an entire page talking about the colors, detail work, and wildlife he saw logging into the game for the first time.
With a big smile, Jay set to work over the next five hours, turning one page into twenty.
***
Jay was extremely tired, considering it was only mid-afternoon when he completed his work. He sent the please-pay-me essay to Mr. Georges with a short note, explaining he was happy to answer any follow-up questions between leveling sessions.
When he checked his phone, there was a text waiting from Claire. Jay stared at his screen. Existential dread spiked as he imagined all the terrible possible replies.
Summoning his courage from earlier, he read the text: Pick me up at 7pm! :)
Jay let go of the breath he didn’t know he was holding. As responses went, that was a great one. Jay spent a few minutes smiling in the warm glow of feeling wanted, at least a little bit. He stood up from his computer chair, cracking his back, and looked at the full dive equipment. After a quick tv dinner, he hopped straight into Tumultua Online to begin island preparations.
Jay phased directly into the space outside Nora’s he had left. A young man walking toward the shop jumped in surprise. The other player jumped in his own skin, a brief look of horror passing over his face.
“Sorry about that,” Jay said, already leaving the area.
“Wait, what’s a Monster Hunter?” the other player called loudly. Of course, since Jay had already turned his back, it would be more awkward to return and answer the question. Instead, he ran away.
You know, like adults do, he thought to himself.
Jay had reconsidered his plan to buy bolts first thing. He expected to spend a lot of time acquiring potions, enchanted bolts, and other consumables. More importantly, his gear needed upgrades. Unloading the old stuff would generate more gold Prints, which he needed after dropping so much money on the compass.
His first stop was a shop nearby the guild headquarters called Bernard’s Best Weapons. The subtext on the sign read: especially good for stabbing. He almost expected to run into Lester nearby the base but experienced no such unluck.
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Jay walked inside, unsure what exactly he was expecting. Inside, he found a human about three times the size of any Elf Jay had seen. The man behind the counter wasn’t particularly muscular, at least not in a showy way—he was just big from head to toe. His voice was baritone but surprisingly quiet.
“The name’s Bernard, and this here is my shop. Ya get me? What can I do for ya, yeah?”
The shopfront was mostly bare, displaying only particularly ornate and exciting pieces. There weren’t any daggers, but Jay saw a shortsword with sprawling runes drawn into the blade. It glowed with a dull purple color. The wrapping cloth for the handle was done in a similar purple color; additionally, a small indigo gemstone was set into the pommel.
System Message: Purple Haze [Rare]. This weapon is crafted using a pattern weaving together multiple runes of Haze. Attacks with this weapon have a 10% chance of inflicting the “Haze” debuff for five seconds, causing a clouded vision. Damage: 62-82. Cost: 3,000 gold Prints.
“Nice sword, eh?” Bernard asked while Jay was a little distracted by the weapon. “You want to take a look at it?”
Jay nodded, tearing his eyes away from the purple sword.
“A bit out of my price range, unfortunately. At least for now. I don’t suppose you buy weapons, too?”
Bernard pulled out a small booklet from underneath his countertop. “I’ll buy weapons, armor, and consumables. Truth of the matter is you’ll only get the best prices on the weapons, yeah? That’s what I sell here. I sell the other gear to people around town, and I need to be paid for my time, yeah?”
“Seems fair enough to me,” Jay acknowledged. He put on a set of regular clothes, pulling his collection of gear into his inventory. Holding onto only his repeater crossbow and cowboy hat, he placed the rest on the table. The goblin bow, bone crossbow, rare dagger, and level 1 Founder’s Pack armor set were all present.
System Message: This is your only warning, Monster Hunter! The Outlaw ability is for REAL cowboys. Cowboys don’t wear plain clothes, so you better sort yourself out. You will regain access to the Outlaw ability when you have the proper manner of dress.
Jay wasn’t all that surprised by the message. The game imposed the cowboy look onto Monster Hunters. It almost saddened him that there weren’t other Monster Hunters yet. Watching a bunch of cowboys running around with crossbows would have been entertaining.
“Most of this stuff is pretty good,” Bernard acknowledged, closing his little booklet. He placed it back under the counter. “Although, we’re going to have to go off script for most of it, yeah? Let me see here.”
Bernard took a moment to inspect each item individually. Jay could tell he possessed a keen set of eyes. Though he claimed his specialty was in weapons, there was recognition in his inspection of every single piece. Jay figured Bernard might even have some sort of skill to help with the process as an NPC merchant.
When his inspections finished, Bernard nodded his approval of the dagger Jay had used so far. “This piece, in particular, is really nice, and I’d love to acquire it. Seeing as how you’ve got quite the collection here, I’ll offer you twenty-five hundred for the lot, yeah? It might be worth a little more, but there’s a lot of armor. Lots of pieces for me to deal with, too, yeah?”
Jay considered the proposal. He had never been the sort of player to shop around at a dozen shops to see different prices. He much preferred one-stop shopping so he could return to the more interesting parts of the game. He still needed to read several skillbooks, lacking time for reading during his adventures thus far. That was already going to be a hassle.
Still, Jay figured it didn’t hurt to haggle a little, so long as he was already in the store. “What do you think about trading this whole lot for that sword? I’ll add another two hundred and fifty gold. That gives me a discount on the overall price, but you’ll know that gold is being spent here.”
Jay gestured to indicate he was referring to the Purple Haze shortsword.
Bernard gave him an appraising look, then scrutinized all the equipment again. “I give you that deal and throw in a bladed weapon care kit, and you take better care of my work, yeah? This dagger’s been downright abused, and I’d smack you upside the head if it weren’t going to be so interesting to repair.”
The look that the shop owner shot Jay next said everything it needed to. The gaze told Jay that he’d be getting that smack upside the head if he brought back Purple Haze without properly maintaining it.
Jay grabbed the gold and handed it over to Bernard. The NPCs didn’t need to count it out, so the shop owner accepted it. He brought the gold into the back with him. Jay assumed he had a safe of some sort back there. Once Bernard returned, he was carrying a small box with him. He offered it to Jay.
Only two items were encased in the box when Jay opened the small repair kit. The first was a small vial labeled as blade oil. The second was a magical edging device. It was called a Dummy-proof Whetstone.
Jay wasn’t a big fan of the implications, but swallowing a little pride was better than getting into a fight with a human that might actually be a giant.
After completing the transaction, Jay stored his new weapon on his hip. The care kit went into his inventory. He thanked Bernard and promised to return, heading off for further shopping.
Jay considered going to get some new armor. The loss of extra health and mp from the equipment wasn’t horrible. Much of Jay’s defenses relied on being faster than his opponents so he could dodge out of the way. Beyond that, he had a lot of trust in Taylor Lynn. If she could convince Lester on the island, Jay would still be able to get his set of guild armor.
Jay was sure it would come with significant bonuses since the crafters were wholly focused on crafting and fed materials by the guild. Plus, then he’d have fancy armor in guild colors. He thought over how nice it would feel to be part of the in crowd for once and decided he still didn’t care about that at all.
Besides, if Taylor Lynn couldn’t win Lester over, the increased difficulty was part of the reason he preferred playing alone.
Ultimately, Jay stopped by Marlow’s Magical Liquids to acquire some potions. He didn’t chat too much with the attendant since that guy didn’t seem to like him very much. It didn’t bother Jay either since Jerry kinda sucked.
Jay acquired fifteen novice mp potions for 105 gold Prints. He didn’t expect to use that many, but it always helped to have extras for healers. He also acquired thirty novice hp potions for 140 gold Prints and spent another 140 gold on other novice potions of various types.
After those purchases, he made his way back to Nora’s shop. It was open again, but she had left the table and chairs out. She welcomed Jay to use them. The guild would have been a much more comfortable workplace, but that wasn’t in the cards. He sat in the uncomfortable chair to read his skillbooks.
Jay dived right in, starting with the Survival book, which he really wanted to finish. The book broke down all kinds of traps and configurations that a dungeoneer should expect. The information was rudimentary compared to Bestiary entries, but there were some details written about common monsters like Fishmongers.
Sitting in a pastel chair and reading is where Lester found him. The guild leader wore a visage made of stone.
“We should talk.”