As Ravana raised his sword to throw a bolt of electricity at Grimguy, I summoned all my strength and stood up. I ran to Ravana and buried my sword into his back, such that the sword came out from his stomach.
Ravana let out a deafening yell. My sword still inside him, he fell onto his knees and he dropped his great sword. I picked up the magnificent weapon and slew him. He disappeared.
I looked at Grimguy, not believing what I had just accomplished. Grimguy was gaping. Then he ran to me.
“You did it!” he cried, almost in tears.
Just then a message appeared in my vision.
Quest Completed!
You have defeated the monster!
You receive 5000 gold. The Ravana Inn will no longer be considered a haunted place by anyone and the business will boom!
Following this message, the golden chamber of Ravana dissolved and we found ourselves back in our room. I had received 2500 gold, and so had Grimguy. I was surely becoming a rich man. I didn’t want to leave the game world ever. It was the best place to be.
“Thanks man,” Grimguy told me, “I don’t think I could have done that alone.”
“Thanks to you for telling me about the quest in the first place. It was a ton of fun!”
And in my hands there was Ravana’s sword, electricity coursing through it. I considered it the main trophy. I put it inside my bag. As for my old sword, I decided I would give it to Lovebird if I met her again. We went downstairs.
A few people had already come to the inn, and a very happy Nanda was serving them. When he saw us, he came running.
“You two did something, didn’t you?” he said.
“We chased away the ghost,” Grimguy told him with a smile, “this place is no longer haunted.”
“Whatever I earn from this inn from now on,” Nanda said, his face red with emotion, “I am going to give twenty five percent of it to each of you.”
Chapter 5
So it happened that Ravana’s inn became a main tourist attraction literally overnight. The next day visitors began to pour in, and the business of the inn boomed. I decided that it was best for me to move to the Ravana’s Inn, since Nanda had made me and Grimguy partial owners of the inn. Also, I didn’t want to stay for free for the rest of my days in the game world in The Big Moustache Inn. I would miss the delicious cooking of the beautiful Amira though.
Chandra and his family were sad when I told them I was leaving their inn. But I assured them that I would visit them regularly in the future. I took a room next to Grimguy’s (who now had only one room for himself as the other rooms were given to other players) in the new inn and accommodated myself there. I also hid my birthstone in my new room, under my bed.
I swept the room myself in the mornings, so there was no fear that anyone might steal my birthstone and abuse it. The only people who came to my room were Grimguy and Nanda.
It was my fourth day in Prithvi when I received a message from Lovebird. The past couple of days I had wondered if she had quit the game altogether, since I saw that she had last been active only on the day when I had rescued her from the Raks.
“Hello,” she messaged me.
“Hey.”
“Where do you stay now? I am near the blacksmith’s shop.”
“I now live in a place called the Ravana’s Inn. I am the partial owner here now, lol.” I gave her the address of the inn.
“I was hoping to go Rak hunting again,” she said.
“Cool,” I said, “I have got something for you, come fast.”
She reached the inn in a few minutes.
“You said you became the partial owner,” she said, looking at my new room, “How?”
“A unique quest really. I helped to remove the haunted tag from this inn. By the way, here’s what I have for you.”
I pulled out my old sword from the bag and gave it to her.
“But it’s your sword, why are you giving it to me? You’d require it.”
“I have a replacement.”
I grinned and took out the sword I had taken from Ravana. Electricity coursed about the great weapon. Her jaw dropped.
I wondered if Lovebird would think I was giving her my old sword because I didn’t need it any more. But then, I couldn’t possibly give her Ravana’s sword, right? We had only met the other day, after all.
Lovebird, I and Grimguy went hunting for Raks. It was fun. We didn’t have a healer, but we were able to kill the mobs and get a ton of loot, besides levelling up. There was one time when Grimguy was nearly killed, but Lovebird saved him. In fact she was the one who killed most of the Raks. I just killed a giant Rak with my big sword. Lovebird sure knew how to swordfight.
After the prisoners had been freed, Lovebird logged out. I and Grimguy crossed the river.
“You like her, don’t you?” Grimguy suddenly asked me.
“You mean Lovebird?” I said.
He nodded with a grin.
“Who else?”
I shrugged.
“Let’s see where it goes,” I told him. Lovebird was a good girl. But I knew nothing about her real life. I thought it would be weird to have a relationship with another player. Unless you were a perma player like Grimguy and the person you loved was also a perma player, then it would be a different thing altogether. Lovebird’s reluctance to tell more about her real life didn’t help. But then, would I tell anyone that I was playing the game for free and was in fact being paid to do so? Everyone had their right to privacy.
After we got off the horse cart, Grimguy said that he was feeling sleepy. I however was quite active. I told him to go and said that I would return to the inn later. I wanted to explore Kapilpura. It was only noon and there was plenty of time.
I strolled about the streets. I went with a lazy gait, taking in the sights and the sounds of the city. The buildings in Kapilpura weren’t very high. The highest that I saw was about five storeys only. I wondered where the rulers of the city lived. Kapilpura undoubtedly was ruled by a monarch, or at least that was what I thought. I hoped that in a few days I would have my own map of the city once I got to the required level.
I saw the soldier from the other day when I had first met Grimguy. I nodded at him and he smiled back. I didn’t ask him if he had managed to catch the thief.
My stroll took me to one particular shop, outside of which there was what looked like a baby monkey in a cage. It turned out not to be a baby monkey. It was one of those monkey people, a child one. I was partially glad now I hadn’t chosen the monkey man race, or else I feared that I would have ended up in a cage. Then I suddenly recalled that I had started the game in a cage.
I was curious and observed the monkey man child for a while. He too looked up at me.
“Please help me,” he squeaked.
He could speak?
“How can I help you?” I asked him.
“Please help me reunite with my mother.”
A quest message popped up.
Reunite the monkey man child with his mother
Reward: the child and his mother will become your loyal pets
Pets. That would be cool, I thought. I accepted the quest.
“Where is your mother?” I asked the child.
“Inside the shop,” the monkey man child replied. “The owner has trapped her in a glass container using magic.”
“Okay, little one. Be assured that you will meet your mother in a little while,” I said to the monkey man child and then went inside the shop. The inside of the shop was filled with bones and skins of different animals. There was even a giant tooth that was longer than my forearm. Different kinds of skulls hung on the walls.
A single man sat in the centre of the room behind a table, writing something in a fat register. I concentrated on the man, but none of his details came up. I at once realised that this was a perma player. So it was possible to set up shop in the game world. But when I thought about it, I realised that I myself had set up shop in a way by becoming the partial owner of the Ravana Inn.
I let out a cough to announce my arrival.
“You don’t need to do that,” the man said. “I can see you.”
But he didn’t look up even once from his register. I thought the man was rude at best. A little more of that behaviour and I’d be quite tempted to use my sword on him. The man was clean shaven, and he didn’t have any hair either. He had bushy eyebrows that were drawn in concentration, and he was wearing old robes.
“I want to know where the mother of the monkey man child is,” I said.
“Over there,” the man said, pointing towards a glass container, but not looking up from the register. The container was of black glass and I couldn’t see what it contained. But if I was going to get the mother so easily, then the man wasn’t so bad after all.
I went over and bent to pick up the container. This time it was the man who coughed.
“You don’t really think I would allow you to take away the mother just like that, right?” he said this as though he thought me to be the greatest fool in the game world, a smirk pasted on his face. I reconsidered my thoughts. This man wasn’t a good guy. Why would he capture the mother and imprison her in a bottle otherwise? His rude behaviour didn’t help either. A dislike for the man came over me. He belonged to a particular group of humans who relished in thinking they were superior to others.
I picked up the container anyway.
“I need the mother and the child,” I told him flatly.
The man leaned backwards in his chair.
“Fine. Pay me.”
“How much gold do you want?” I asked.
He grimaced.
“Gold? Gold is not the price for the mother or the child, my friend,” the man told me.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I deal with Karma. The mother costs 300 karma. Pay and you can take her. Unfortunately I see that you have 0 karma. So you better get your ass out of my shop.”
His words hit me like an iron rod. Enough. I would have actually gone out of the shop politely only if the man had a better attitude. I pulled out my sword.
“You might like to take back your words,” I told him.
“I see. A threat,” the man said. “Go on. Do what pleases you. Let me see the powers of your great toy.”
I raised my sword. Immediately a bolt of electricity leapt to the man. His clothes caught fire, but he put it out with his hands.
And that was it.
I had expected the weapon to at least gravely injure him, if not kill him. I looked at my sword in surprise. Ravana had destroyed the entrance to his chamber so easily with the same sword. Was there a correct way to use it? But then, I had also successfully killed the Raks during the hunt with the sword not a long time ago.
The man smiled. I hated that smile.
“So that’s all you got? Now get your ass out of here.”
Embarrassed, I mechanically turned and made for the door. I heard the man finally get up from his chair.
“Tut, tut,” he said, “it would save you a lot of health if only you keep the container back down.” I realised that I was still carrying the container. Could I just run with it? I thought. No, I wouldn’t do anything like that. I would teach this man a lesson before taking the container with me.
I placed it carefully back on the floor and went out of the shop. The child in the cage outside looked at me with a crestfallen face as I went past him, my shoulders hunched. I promised myself that I would free the child and reunite it with its mother at all cost. I did not want them as pets. All I wanted was revenge from the man for the embarrassment I had suffered today.
I made it back to the inn. Nanda greeted me with a wide beam as I entered it, but I just nodded at him, my mind replaying all that the evil man had said to me. I wanted to crush his face and stitch his lips together. That would teach him some manners.
I waited for Grimguy to wake up so that I could tell him all that had happened. He had been in the game for so long. Perhaps he knew better how to get karma points, though he didn’t have many karma points himself.
Grimguy didn’t wake up soon.
I was impatient perhaps, so I decided to go down and eat. It was rare for me to get angry over anything even in the real world, but in the rare days when I did get angry, I had a tendency to eat a lot. I ordered rice. It was what I ate as my staple food.
I stuffed in the rice as fast as I could, all the while the face of the shopkeeper in my mind’s eye. I wanted to crack an egg over his bald head. Just as I was eating, there was a very comical laugh outside the inn. A laugh that seemed to have been orchestrated. It went like “Ho! Ho! Ho!”
I looked outside and so did many of the people present in the inn. The laugh and the person who owned it couldn’t be missed. He was a giant of a man. He had a big flowing beard and I thought that he would make a perfect Santa Claus, what with his bulging stomach. He entered the inn and was accompanied by a strange being. The being was a reptile.
A humanoid reptile that walked so much like a man.
It had four fingers instead of five and scales cover its body, and its eyes were reptilian. I couldn’t say if it was a male or a female however. It seemed to be the pet of the giant man from the way it followed him.
The man and his pet entered the inn. The man gracefully sat down at a table, while the pet remained standing.
Nanda quickly went to him and asked him what he would like to have.
“Bring me the best that you have got!” the man replied in a booming voice, followed by his comical laugh. I couldn’t see any reason why he was laughing. Or perhaps I was just jealous that he was laughing while I was fuming with hatred for the shopkeeper. Some times people laughed for no reason and it was a good thing.
In fifteen minutes Nanda brought the man what I myself regarded as his best dish. It was a different kind of noodles served in coconut shells.
I meanwhile had finished my meal. I downed a great glass of water and then leaned backwards. The man and his pet had suddenly acquired all of my attention.
The man finished the dish in earnest and when he was done he clapped his hands. He began praising the dish, saying that it was the best thing he had ever tasted in Prithvi. He congratulated Nanda for being such a fine cook and the latter went so red, he resembled a tomato.
The man was also a perma player as I couldn’t see any of his details. But I overheard him introducing himself to Nanda was Wiseazz.
I decided to approach him. I was curious how he had got the reptile pet. Had he also bought it with Karma points? In that case he could perhaps tell me how to acquire karma points. Chandra had earlier told me it was pretty hard to acquire positive karma.
I got up from the chair and approached the man. His pet looked at me sternly, but Wiseazz beamed widely. It was a very genuine beam, one that stretched to his eyes.
“Hello,” he said, “may I be of any service to you?”
At the same time he drew out a chair for me to sit.
I was thankful for the warmth and friendliness that was dripping from the man’s face. It was such a contrast to the rude behaviour I had come across only a short while back from the shopkeeper.
“I just wanted to know about your pet,” I said.
“Well, he is a Dinoman from the Northlands. I rescued him from a bunch of Raks in the far east. It was quite an adventure really. He has remained with me ever since, even though I gave him the chance to return to the land of his forefathers. His name is Reptilio by the way.”
Reptilio kept looking at me sternly, or perhaps that was what his face looked like. With all the scales covering his face, it was hard to say if he was angry or sad or happy. He just looked permanently stern. I reckoned when he got angry for real he would just open his mouth wide and display his razor like teeth.
“Actually, I got a quest to save a monkey man child and his mother,” I said to Wiseazz, “I must buy the mother apparently. And I require Karma points to do so.”
“Is the owner of the child and his mo
ther an immensely rude person?” the man asked me.
“He is. I wish I could behead him,” I said.
Wiseazz grinned.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to do when I first met him too. He is a rude fellow, but he is also very powerful. Don’t mess with him. If you really want to have the child and his mother you’ll have to do something else. As for Karma points… they are a tricky affair. But they can be transferred from one player to another. That’s how I acquired my karma points anyway.”
I hoped Wiseazz would tell me about the something else that I needed to do to have the child and his mother.
Wiseazz winked at me.
“You know, it’d be easier and smarter if you just take the mother and the child from that guy without asking him.”
Wiseazz then ordered another dish. This was probably the signal that he had told me everything that he could. I thanked him and went up to my room. I pondered over his words, biting my lips and staring out at the streets outside through the window.
“Without asking him.”
What did those words mean? It was obviously a shady way to take the mother and the child and Wiseazz had not wanted to tell it to me in a very direct way. My eyes fell on the spot where the soldier’s keys had been stolen the other day, and I realised that Wiseazz had talked about stealing the mother and the child from the shopkeeper. Yes, that would be the perfect revenge. The man wouldn’t even know when I take his belongings from under his nose without his knowing. But would it be possible?
I had to find a means to get the shopkeeper out of the shop, so I can sneak in and take the mother and thus complete the quest. Just then there was a knock at my door.
“Come in,” I said.
Grimguy entered, yawning and running a hand through his untidy hair.
“I thought you were calling me in my sleep,” he said.
“Do you know of any place here where you can contact thieves?” I found myself asking. Grimguy’s eyebrows shot high up his forehead.
“What do you want to contact thieves for?” he asked in bewilderment.
I told him about the shopkeeper and what Wiseazz had told me.
Perma-Death Online: A LitRPG adventure: Book 1 Page 6