“These four, Leo,” Artus pointed to the first four crates nearest the back part of the wagon. “They are quite heavy, I’ll grab this side an--”
“I got it,” I lifted one of the wooden boxes up and out of the wagon before my friend could open the back hatch. It felt like it weighed only a few pounds.
Both Artus and Jer stared at me with amazement, and then the shorter man gestured for me to follow him inside.
“You can set it in the back here,” he said after I’d walked in through the doors, and past the front counter. The store was filled with manual type cooking gear that would have been useful if a home didn’t have electricity. There was a cleared spot in the storage area at the back, and I set the crate down where the store owner gestured.
Artus had the hatch down when I returned, and he was trying to push one of the crates to the edge by himself.
“I’ve got this, don’t worry buddy.” I pulled the crate he was touching to the edge, and then I jumped up on the wagon. Then I picked up the other two crates, stacked them on top of each other, and lifted them at once.
“Whoa! Careful Leo! Don’t hurt yourself!” he begged.
“It’s fine, Artus, it really doesn’t weigh anything,” I said as I walked with my load back to the shop.
I realized there was no quest progress bar, and while I didn’t think it was a deal breaker, it was something that a lot of players preferred so that they would know exactly how far through the quests they were. I’d have to bring it up with Zarra when I logged out.
“Well, don’t drop anything either. Grrrrrr, ohh. Please don’t!”
“It’s fine. This is really light.” It felt like I was carrying empty cardboard boxes, and I had to bend my knees a little to fit the top of my load under the arch of the front door.
“Your man is strong, Artus!” Jer said once I had set the three boxes down.
“Yes, thank the Body,” my friend’s strange eyes were wide, and he had his hands clasped nervously.
“Alright, I’ve got your coin,” Jer handed the other man a bag, “and I’ve got your crate of pans here.” He gestured to another crate, and then he looked at me.
“I’ll get it,” I said as I squatted down and hooked my fingers under the wood.
“That’s real heavy kid. But you seemed to--”
I had thought that this box would actually weigh something, but it felt only a few pounds lighter than the spices I’d just hauled in.
“Well, there you go. Artus, you should think about starting a circus show with him, he doesn’t even look like he is breathing hard.
“It’s really not that heavy,” I smiled at them as I exited the store. This was kind of a cool touch that Zarra must have added to the game. They were probably making the players stronger than the NPCs so that they felt a little more heroic. I’d have to talk to her about the settings because it was possible that they had me too strong for a new character.
“Where to next?” I asked after I set the crate in the wagon.
“It’s in another block of the city. Gonna take us a little under ten minutes to get there,” Artus said as he closed the hatch with a wrapped hand.
“I’ll see you in a few months,” Jer said to my friend. “Hey, watch out for Kimmel Halafast. He asked about you the last time you were here.”
“What did he say?”
“The usual. Said he didn’t want your kind in the city. Said you weren’t paying taxes, and that none of your kind ever did.”
“Grrrr. Thanks, Jerjay. I’ll be heading back tomorrow morning.”
“Maybe you should leave tonight?” the short human asked with a shrug, “but then again, your tall friend there seems capable of taking care of himself. Just be careful. Okay?”
“I will be. Thanks.” The two men nodded at each other, and then my friend jumped back into the wagon.
I joined him up on the bench, and the horned donkey started to move up the incline of the cobblestone hill.
“We’ll stick to the side streets, just in case,” Artus explained.
“Why is this guy Kimmel mad at you?”
“His father is the lord of the city. He’s the fifth son, and thinks he is the tax collector, or the captain of the guards, or whatever title he believes he should have in order to get his way.”
“So he is a bully?”
“Grrrr. Suppose so. I know you said you aren’t from around here, but it’s not uncommon for my kind to get harassed. I half expect it. Still, I don’t want any trouble. I didn’t have enough money to pay him last time he came around, and it made him upset. I brought extra this time, so if he shows up, I can pay him off. I’d prefer to just do my business, and then get out of the city by tomorrow morning.”
“Couldn’t you leave tonight? Like Jer asked you to?”
“One of my clients is a farmer that is a few dozen miles out of my route. I’m going to send him a Mind Message to come meet me, but he won’t be able to come until tomorrow morning.”
“What is a Mind Message? Wouldn’t it be worth it to go out of your way if it meant that you wouldn’t get harassed by this asshole?” I asked.
“Ha! Asshole. That is a good description for Kimmel. I like that word. I’ve never heard anyone say that insult before.”
“Where I come from, we say it all the time,” I laughed.
“Mind Message is magic that reaches someone,” Artus explained.
“Oh, that makes sense,” I said with a nod. I guessed that it was probably the game’s internal messaging system. Zarra’s developers must have decided to make it so that it cost the players money to send private messages or instant mail.
“I might be able to go out of my way, but it would add another day or so to my travels. This client likes to talk a lot. If I go and visit him, he might not want to let me leave. Grrrr.”
“Might be better than extortion,” I shrugged with a laugh. I could tell that this lord’s son Kimmel was probably going to show up in the next few minutes. The storyline of the game was a bit heavy handed, and I felt that the designers were dropping too many hints about what was going to happen next in this quest. It was still great, and I figured that most players would love it. I was just used to playing these games, and had been on too many “escort quests.” Zarra had asked me not to fight, so I guessed that there would be a way that I could talk Kimmel out of whatever violence he had in mind for my friend.
“Here is the next stop, Leo. Just one crate.” Artus pointed at a box in the middle of the wagon. “Can you move that to the lip? I’ll have you bring it in after I talk to Mitkia and send my message.”
“Sounds good,” I said as I climbed into the back of the wagon.
“Be a few minutes.”
“I’ll watch the wagon. Don’t worry,” I assured him as I shifted the crates around.
“Thanks, Leo,” he said.
I watched him walk into the door of a small home. The door was painted a bright lavender color, and the edges of the roof were lined with hanging pots that appeared to be filled with herbs.
I opened the tailgate of the wagon, pushed the crate to the edge, and then sat with my feet dangling off of the wood. I felt as if I could watch the hustle and bustle of the city for weeks, and I didn’t mind waiting. After a few minutes, Artus came out of the lavender door, and he gestured for me to bring the crate.
“You can set that on the counter here,” a woman said as I walked inside with the crate.
“This good?” I asked as I set it down on her counter. The home had shelves of herbs, bags of spices, and an array of crystals hanging from several hooks behind the counter.
“Yes,” the woman said. She looked as if she was in her fifties, she was very pretty and kept her long gray hair braided over one shoulder.
“Thanks, Mitkia,” my bandaged friend said to the woman.
“No, thank you. You always bring me the best quality-- who is this?” The woman seemed to notice me, and her eyes opened wide.
“I’m Leo Lennox,” I sai
d. “Nice to meet you.” I held out my hand.
She grasped my fingers quickly, and her grip was surprisingly strong. The inside of her home had a few windows in the front, but the curtains were closed, and there wasn’t much light in the place. The dimness made her eyes seem to glow a dark blue, and I felt my breath catch in my chest.
“Why are you here?” she whispered.
“I’m uhhh, helping Artus deliver his goods.”
“No. No. No. No.” She shook her head, and her face seemed to have lost all of its color.
“The young man has been helping me, Mitkia. He’s a good soul.”
“He isn’t trained. Leo is your name?” The color seemed to have returned to her face.
“Yes, umm ma’am,” I said. I didn’t know how you addressed an elder in the game, but I figured that “ma’am” was safe to use everywhere.
“Don’t use the Body, Mind, Light, or Shadow. Do you understand?” her whisper was urgent and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention.
“I don’t really know what you are talking about. Is that magic?”
“Leo isn’t from around here, Mitkia. Said he comes from York City or something. Have you ever heard of that place? Grrr, grrr, grrr.” It sounded like Artus was laughing.
“No, I haven’t, but now you must leave,” the woman said as she pulled her hand away from mine.
“Will do. Thank you again, Mitkia,” Artus tapped my shoulder and then he gestured for us to walk out the door.
“Is she a magic user?”
“Yes, she does Mind exclusively. They can be a little strange sometimes, and moody, so don’t let her comments bother you.”
“She said ‘Light’ and ‘Shadow’. Are those also types of magic?”
“Ha. Grrr. Grrr. I never thought I’d have to teach someone the basics of magic. I can hardly use Body.” Artus shook his head as he stepped on the edge of the wagon and hoisted himself onto the bench.
“I’d love to learn,” I said as I joined him on the seat. The sun was warm, and the heat on my neck took some of the chills out of the hairs there.
“You need a real teacher then. Grrr. I’ll explain it simply. Hmmm. So there are four types of magic. Oh, I know!” he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a piece of scrap paper. It looked like it had a shopping list.
“See. It is like a circle or a cross. At the top you have Light, then on the other side of the axis, you have Shadow. To the left you have Body. To the right is Mind. It doesn’t really matter with the layout. I’ve seen Mind written on top, and Light on the Right. Body and Mind are always on opposite sides. Same with Light and Shadow.”
Artus drew on the slip of paper with a piece of charcoal while he talked. The drawing looked like a compass rose, with the top being Light, bottom Shadow, left pointing at Body, and the right pointing at Mind.
“Seems simple enough,” I said. “Let me guess, you can have magic that uses both Light and Body, or Light and Mind, but you can’t have both Light and Shadow?”
“You got it, grrrr, and you can’t have both Mind and Body.”
“How do I learn the spells?” I asked.
The design of the magic seemed really simple, which kind of excited me. Astafar Unlimited had spells assigned to each class, and while they had a common class theme, I didn’t like how contained the system felt. Something like this seemed as if it could be mixed and matched with the different axis of magic to make it more interesting. I was also glad they weren’t going with the whole ‘Air, Water, Fire, and Earth’ elemental trope since the idea of a ‘Mind’ or ‘Shadow’ element seemed really interesting. Maybe I would play a mage in this game?
“You have to find a teacher. You can learn spells yourself, but it could take years to uncover one, so I hear it is better to learn them. I also hear you can discover them.” The bandaged man flipped his reins again, and the horned donkey started pulling the wagon.
“Discover them?”
“Sure, there are plenty of old ruins. Left over from the Time of Heliotrope.”
“Was the Time of Heliotrope when a bunch of powerful mages warred with each other and almost destroyed all life?” I asked with a smirk. Okay, maybe Zarra was throwing too many tropes in here. I guessed that most people would like it, though.
“Yes, grrrr. So you do know something about it?” he asked.
“I just guessed.” I smiled at him. I didn’t really know what ‘Heliotrope’ meant, but the way my new friend had said it made me think it was destructive. “So these mages were really powerful? More powerful than the ones nowadays? And there are lots of treasure hunters searching for their old relics?”
“Ha, Leo! You and your adventures. I don’t really know anything about that. Could be possible. I’m just trying to sell my spices, and not have to--”
“Artus!” a voice screamed in front of us, and we turned to see who shouted. It was a tall, blond man wearing a light shirt of gleaming chainmail, a long sword, and an angry facial expression. He was flanked by three other men who were also armed, and the citizens in the street began to duck into the alleyways.
“Pay Kimmel Halafast all of my profits,” Artus finished with a sigh.
Chapter 6
“You owe me-- the city, money,” the blond man said as he slowly strolled toward the front of our wagon. He wore a green sash over his chainmail, and I saw that it had a shield with a strand of wheat embroidered over the shoulder area.
“Kimmel, I register my taxes when I get my license. I pay all my--”
“Shut up. I’m not going to let you wriggle out of this one, you dirty fenia.”
“I don’t want any trouble,” Artus said with a slight whine.
“What are you delivering? Spices? What else you got in there? How many coins do you have?” the man asked as he stepped near the donkey. His three minions walked behind him, and their mouths were all upturned into self-satisfied smirks.
Fuck. I hated bullies.
But then again, these were four armed and armored bullies. Had this been Astafar Unlimited, I could have taken them out easily, even with generic player versus player gear, but I didn’t really even know what level I was in this game, or what level Kimmel and his goons were.
“Is there some way we can work this out?” I leaned over the front of the wagon so that Kimmel could see me better.
“What? Did you bring a guard with you this time, Artus? If there is anything I hate worse than fenias, it is fenia lovers. Disgusting.”
“I’m his assistant,” I offered with a shrug of my shoulders. “Do you have any sort of documentation that allows you to claim his property?” I thought about what Sal would have said if he was in this situation.
“No, I don’t need documentation. I’m captain of the guard. He hasn’t paid his taxes.”
“Is the captain of the guard responsible for collecting taxes?” I asked Artus.
“No, it is actually the license and commerce representatives.”
“I am serving as a license and commerce representative today,” Kimmel snarled.
“But you have the documentation? If you don’t, it would seem like you’d just be taking property that wasn’t yours. That sounds like theft to me.”
“Shhhh,” Artus hissed at me.
“Are you calling me a thief?” The three men standing behind Kimmel opened their eyes in surprise.
“No, I’m just trying to understand the situation,” I said.
“Here is all you need to understand, fenia lover: he owes money, and I’m here to collect. So unless you want to bleed out on the street here, you’ll shut your mouth hole, and go back to licking your friend’s fur.”
“It’s okay Leo. I’ll just give him my money,” Artus sighed.
“No, fuck that. You traveled all this way to--”
“It’s fine. I don’t want you to get hurt, Leo. Grrr,” Artus whined.
“Damn it. Fuck. She told me not to fight.” I felt frustration build in my stomach. This was not a good game
mechanic. I didn’t see how a new player would be expected to let their friend get robbed without fighting, and I guessed that these guards were all higher level than me. They did have nice looking swords and polished chain armor. Most of these games had newbie quests along the lines of killing ten rats or bunnies. Not fighting four armed men without a weapon.
“Go look inside the wagon,” Kimmel ordered his minions. He seemed to have realized that I had decided not to fight.
“I just have some more spices, and some pans to trade back at--”
“We’ll take a look, and take what we want. How much money do you have?” Kimmel snarled.
“Uggggh,” I seethed. This was just a game, and I knew I’d been a bit tongue in cheek earlier when I kept talking to Artus as if he was an NPC, but the shakedown was really bugging me. The AI had done a good job of making me like the character, and I didn’t want to stand around while he got robbed.
I knew Zarra didn’t want me to fight, but what was the worst that could happen? She said that the game was just a little unbalanced, and I would probably lose. Whatever, I didn’t care if I had to respawn. I didn’t want to sit here like an asshole and let my friend get strong armed.
“Nope, you aren’t taking anything.” I stood from the bench and felt my heart begin to race. I had no idea how the combat worked in this game, and I was probably committing virtual suicide.
“Are you daft? We’ll kill you.” Kimmel looked a bit confused.
“I don’t care--”
“No! We are sorry! Leo, sit down.” Artus pulled on the sleeve of my starter tunic, but I just ignored him.
“No.” I pointed down at Kimmel “Fuck off asshole. Leave my friend alone.”
“Did you just call me an asshole?” the blond man’s eyes widened and his jaw set.
“Fuck you. I sure did. Asshole.” I emphasized the last word.
“Kill him,” the man ordered his three goons, and they pulled their long swords from their scabbards.
The three swordsmen were positioned on the sides of the wagon. There were two on my right side and one on the left. Kimmel was still standing by the donkey, and he hadn’t bothered to draw his blade. It was a usual boss scene, and I guessed the bully was going to let his minions do all the work.
Lion's Quest: Undefeated: A LitRPG Saga Page 9