by Jakob Tanner
The sword was really cool. It made me question my goal to become a spellcaster. But then I noticed an epic staff hanging on a shelf in the back and I instantly forgot about the sword. The staff was made of ancient wood and the top of it held a jagged crystal.
“How much is that?”
Frederick the shopkeeper laughed. “Definitely out of your price range is what it is.”
Clearly my status as a new player was obvious. I wore goofy bandit gear not fit for an Aeri. It was barely a cut above the gear everyone started with before they branched into more class appropriate gear.
“Do you have any gear more suitable for someone like me?”
Frederick looked me up and down and rubbed his chin. “You don’t have an identifiable class so your options are limited. But judging from your race and build, I imagine you’ll want something on the more lighter side; something good for a magic user, perhaps?”
I nodded my head. “Sounds great. Do you have anything?”
He peered around the cluttered mess he called a shop floor. How anyone knew where something was in here was beyond me. But clearly there was a method to Frederick’s madness as he suddenly had an “aha” moment and rushed over to one corner and dug out a dark green coat with matching pants.
Green Apprentice Coat (DEF: 11. Durability 9/10)
Green Apprentice Pants (DEF: 9. Durability 9/10)
My eyes widened at the apparel. Along with my gloves and boots this would push my bonus Defense to +25, which would be amazing and go a long way to increasing my survivability. Plus the aesthetic suited my Aeri build. It was elegant and had a velvety softness and sheen to it. It was the apparel of a kickass wizard. Or, you know, one in training.
“I’ll give you a deal on both. How does 100 gold coins sound?”
My jaw dropped. My bank account currently stood at 0 coins. It was time to barter my items before I got attached to any other gear.
“Do you buy gear as well?”
“Of course,” said Frederick. “What do you got for me?”
I opened my inventory tab and unloaded the full set of rough leather Skren gear I’d taken off one of the bandits yesterday.
“How much for all of this?”
“Hmm,” said Frederick. “It’s all a bit rough. But it’s a decent full set. How does 25 gold coins for the armor and 10 for the sword sound?”
35 gold wasn’t nearly as much as I had been hoping for. The rough leather gear I currently wore would net me a further 25 which would get me up to 60 gold pieces. Still not enough though. What about the Skren tails!
“How much are these worth?”
Frederick’s eyes widened at them. I don’t think he was expecting such loot off a beginner like me. “I can give 20 gold coins for the three tails.”
That would bring me up to 80 gold coins which still wasn’t enough.
Time to try a new tactic. I blinked my eyes and frowned at Frederick.
“Would you sell the set to me for 80?”
Frederick chuckled and shook his head. “Nope. You already made it clear to me how desperately you want them. You’ll get me the 100 somehow I’m sure of it.”
Barter (Level 1) Failed
You increased your bartering skills by 0.1
I examined the prompt further and a new page appeared.
Bartering (Passive Skill)
Bartering is one of the primary skills of merchants and craftsmen but can be utilized by all classes for a variety of benefits. Improve your bartering skills by negotiating with others and persuading them to see things your way. Remember: the best deals are when both parties walk away feeling as if they won.
This was good to know for the future. I accidentally played my hand with Frederick but I wouldn’t let it happen again so easily. It did give me another idea though. A.K.O. had a pretty basic JRPG stat system for character leveling. The real meat and complexity of the game came in the form of all the other different skills and abilities you learned and leveled outside of your base stats. The bartering prompt was making me consider all the other crafting abilities available to unlock.
I asked Frederick to excuse me for one second as I headed over to Shade to ask him a question. The cat man was currently holding up a cotton ball of thread and holding it above his head, mesmerized. When I spoke to him, he snapped out of the trance.
“Shade—why are the Skren rat tails so valuable again?”
“They’re an uncommon delicacy and can be used in cooking to make a variety of different things. I had a Skren sandwich once with mustard and Solmini cheese,” Shade said wistfully.
I had an idea.
I headed back over to Frederick and took him up on his offer to take the Skren bandit gear and sword for 35 gold coins. I then told him I’d come back to him later with the gold needed for the apprentice apparel.
As I rushed out the door, Shade followed behind saying, “I don’t like that crazed look in your eye mate. What are you up to?”
I walked over to one of the produce stalls and asked for the price of a bushel of onions. The Lirana farm lady said, “7 gold coins?”
“How about five,” I asked.
She shook her head.
Barter (Level 1) Failed
You increased your bartering skills by 0.1
I glanced around to the other produce stalls, letting the merchant know I had plenty of options. The farm lady saw this and said, “Five gold coins it is.”
Barter (Level 1) Success
You increased your bartering skills by 0.3
She handed me the bushel of onions. I turned around and handed them to Shade. “Hold these, please.”
Next I hurried over to a spice merchant—a dark eyed man with sandy blonde hair. He struck me as Haeren but not Laergardian. He had the air of a very conniving merchant. The man had a whole table of wooden boxes with alluring different herbs, leaves, and spices. All perfect for cooking. But I was only after one thing. The simplest ingredient of all.
“I’d like a small bag of salt please?”
The spice merchant’s mouth opened in a yellow gap-toothed grin. He leaned over and picked up a small bag of salt.
“10 gold coins.”
Highway robbery. I’m sure for someone a couple of levels higher the ten coins would hardly matter, but I was penny pinching.
“How about 7?”
The man shook his head. “Go somewhere else. I don’t care.”
Barter (Level 1) Failed
You increased your bartering skills by 0.1
He wasn’t going to budge but it was worth a try. Even if I failed, my barter skill went up.
This plan better work, I thought as I handed him the ten coins.
I needed one last thing, but I wasn’t sure it would exist in Illyria. I turned to Shade, who was begrudgingly following me around with the bushel of onions, and said, “Do you know what a stock cube is?”
His eyes narrowed quizzically and he shook his head. “There you go being all strange again, talking about made up things like ‘stock cubes.’”
“It’s this thing where I’m from. It’s a burst of flavor. It replicates chicken or beef stock.”
“Oh like stock jelly. Eve has loads of those in her kitchen.”
Perfect.
I turned back around and headed through the crowds until we were back at the Crow’s Heart. I knocked on the door confidently and it swung wide open. I stepped inside and found Eve behind the bar.
“Eve—I need your help. Do you mind if I borrow your kitchen?”
“For you, anything. So long as he stays outside,” she glared at Shade.
The Lirana handed me the bushel of onions and shrugged as he stepped back outside. I headed into a small cove area which made up Eve’s kitchen. There was a fireplace stovetop with a cauldron. Rummaging through her kitchen utensils, I found a sharp chopping knife; this would do the trick. It was time to get to work.
I asked Eve to light the stove and boil water for me as I chopped the onions. I sliced and diced th
e onions quite quickly. Like eerily faster than I normally would. When I finished cutting up the onions, I scraped them off the chop board into the hot cauldron. They sizzled and a rich smell rose from the pot. Nothing like cooking with fresh ingredients.
As I did this the same prompt kept popping in my HUD.
You increased your cooking skills by 0.1
You increased your cooking skills by 0.1
You increased your cooking skills by 0.1
I materialized the large Skren tails from my inventory and placed them on the cutting board. I wiped my eye, sighed and got to work. The knife sliced through the rat tail with ease. I chopped the tails up into cubes and then threw them in with the onions.
Meanwhile Eve was boiling a kettle of hot water for me which I then poured into the pot. Next I grabbed the stock jelly from the counter and threw it in. A bright light glowed out from the cauldron and a prompt appeared across my HUD:
You have discovered a new recipe: Simple Skren Tail Stew
Ingredients: Onion, Skren Tail, Salt, Chicken Stock Jelly
A bowl of Simple Skren Tail Stew offers you +30% damage against all Skren
(Duration: 30 minutes)
Your cooking skills increased by 0.7
You’ve leveled up Cooking (craft) to Level 2
The stew smelt fantastic and I had purchased the ingredients and made it all in under half an hour. The recipe was based off an old chicken stew one I used to make at the hostel when our cook was sick. It was an old simple classic but it appealed to the hungover travellers passing through our doors. I was happy to see the stew still worked with the new Skren tail ingredient.
A finger tapped the side of my ribs. I turned around and saw Eve standing behind me.
“Are you planning on eating it all?” she asked, “Because there’s a line up outside.”
Hungry warriors and merchants had lined up outside, drawn to the Crow’s Heart by the smell of my stew. This was going even better than I expected.
Eve and I cut a deal. She’d provide the serving bowls and we’d sell each bowl for ten gold apiece. We had about twenty bowls worth in the pot. Since we had used Eve’s cooking utensils she wanted a cut of the profits. I said if we sold it all I’d give her 40% of our cut.
We sold out in minutes. We split the gold out, Eve taking 80 coins and me pocketing the rest. I greedily eyed my inventory screen as the gold coin symbol shot up to 140. Unbelievable. The game was offering me a potential whole other path of life. I didn’t have to necessarily go around killing monsters and going on quests. The life of a craftsmen—a restaurateur!—was within my grasp.
I thanked Eve again and hurried out back through the market and over to Frederick’s. The apprentice coat and pants were still there.
“Are you still interested in the offer?” asked the portly merchant picking at his moustache.”
Do you wish to purchase:
Green Apprentice Coat (TGH: 11. Durability 9/10)
Green Apprentice Pants (TGH: 9. Durability 9/10)
For the price of: 100 gold coins
Yes/No ?
I said yes. The number of gold coins in my inventory dropped to 40 and two new items appeared within my five available slots. I instantly selected them to be equipped.
Instantaneously, my beginner leather gear was off and I was clad in a long dark green jacket falling just below my knees. The wool jacket came with a slinky hood which I would keep down as to not look suspicious. Puffy trousers in a matching color hung below my waist over my rough leather boots. The dusty mirror revealed someone who had a firm grasp of magic and the ability to summon fire with a flick of their fingers. One day maybe.
With my new gear on, I sold the old leather junk for another 25 gold. I didn’t want it taking up space in my inventory. Which reminded me of something.
“Do you have anything to increase inventory space Frederick?”
“Yes,” said the shopkeeper. “Give me one moment.”
He rummaged around and brought over a simple brown leather backpack. “This is an apprentice backpack. Gives you fifteen additional slots of inventory space. I can sell it to you for 65 gold?”
All my money, huh? The extra inventory space sounded nice. Less item management.
“How about for 40 gold,” I said. “You know because I’ve bought so much from you already.”
It was a low-ball bid but I hoped he’d meet me halfway. Instead, he nodded and said, “Works for me.”
Barter (Level 1) Success!
You increased your bartering skills by 0.4
You’ve leveled up Bartering (Passive Skill) to Level 2
I walked out of the shop with my new backpack and gear.
“Well don’t you look good,” said Shade, leaning against the wall outside of Frederick’s shop. “Ready to visit the Royal Knights of Laergard?”
“Hell yeah,” I said, gripping the handles of my recently acquired backpack as I strutted down the road, showing off my new and slightly less noobish look.
14
The market stalls dwindled as we headed west across the city. We passed other squares with small churches and fountains, went through quiet neighborhood streets where Lirana and Muumuu women were hanging out laundry to dry from their windowsills. We crossed a bridge over a bright green canal and entered a piazza. In a few steps the city had completely changed: gone were the narrow laneways, the graffiti, the cracked and dirty cobblestoned streets. No beggars laid on the ground here, hats out asking for coins. Nope—the streets here were clean, bright in their magnificence, lush green trees poking their pretty branches into the street beyond the courtyard walls from which they came.
A few Haeren men and woman strolled across the square in bright Victorian garments. The woman wore puffy dresses with crinoline cages underneath and the men strutted about in suits and waistcoats with gilded buttons. They were walking along a shopping street with brightly lit windows, browsing clothing and other luxury items. There was an instrument shop selling lutes and fiddles and other goods important to anyone in the bard class. The window of a fancy butcher caught my eye: a large carcass of a magnificent boar hung from the window, above jars of special horseradish and other artisanal spices.
Shade groaned. “Ugh—this is why I hate coming to west Arondale. I have to acknowledge such people exist.”
“Who are they?”
“Nobles of the city,” Shade explained. “Sons and daughters of very wealthy merchants or cousins of the Royal family. Doesn’t matter which. Let’s ignore them and head on our way.”
We kept moving through the pretty streets of Arondale’s wealthy neighborhood, passing large homes and columned gates. The streets weren’t as packed as the east end of the city but there were still plenty of people passing us by: from well-dressed nobles to fully armored knights. I eyed everyone who hurried by—mages, paladins, rangers, and an assortment of classes and races in different combinations—and it was impossible to tell the difference between any of them and Shade. There was nothing outwardly distinguishable about the players and NPCs. Besides we were all bits of code now anyway. But some sets of code—the players—came back to life after being killed. Death was all the more real to NPCs. Would they come to resent the so-called Chosen?
At the end of the road, we approached a large building made of a light red stone. On either side of the archway entrance hung two green banners. The banners featured a large symbol of a shield, stitched seamlessly in silver thread across the green background. The herald of the Royal Knights of Laergard. A shield. I liked how it privileged defense and justice over strength and power. A banner with clashing swords would’ve put me ill at ease. I hoped the iconography matched the personalities of this guild.
We approached the archway where two guards, similar to the ones outside the city, raised their hands to halt us.
“Who visits the guildhall of the Royal Knights of Laergard?”
I was about to open my mouth and launch into the whole story about being kidnapped by Skren an
d attacked by a demon monster when Shade bowed his head and waved his arm in this elegant and totally out-of-character manner.
“Excuse us,” said Shade, keeping his head down in a diminutive posture. “But we ran into trouble last night in the woods and would greatly like to pass on the message of a foul creature lurking in the woods to your captain. Do you mind if we step through to your courtyard?”
The guards nodded, giving us their approval. They stepped out of our way.
“You’re lucky. Captain Edward Silver is in the back training the new recruits,” said one of the guards. “Speak to him.”
We walked passed the guards and Shade did not acknowledge his complete change in diction and personality beyond a subtle smirk on his face. The Lirana luck bonuses and positive racial alignments clearly knew no bounds.
Loud clangs of clashing swords and grunts echoed through the shadowy tunnel leading to the guild’s courtyard. Stepping into the quad, a large training ground was revealed to us. Rows of armored soldiers practiced stabbing with their bayonets, others were working on their shield stances, a few fought with swords off to the side. Most of the soldiers were Haeren, but there were a couple of bulky Rorn soldiers in the training crowd.
In one corner, two soldiers caught my attention. One of them was sweaty and red in the face. He was overheating in his armor. The other dragged his sword on the ground, unable to lift it up.
“Why can’t I wield this damn thing?”
“You need to put more attribute points into Attack Power and Toughness,” whispered the other one.
So they were players. They must be working on a quest to unlock the warrior or knight class. Interesting. Part of me wanted to go over and talk to them. It would be comforting to talk with someone else from back home. But I wasn’t sure. These were the kinds of decisions you made all the time as a backpacker, split second judgment calls on people. People new to backpacking would always say hello to other travellers—becoming instant friends. But the longer you stayed on the road, the more cautious you were, the more you sussed out an individual, making sure they weren’t a crazy person you’d be attaching yourself to for the next couples of hours, days, or even weeks. I grinned as Shade’s sensitive whiskers caused his face to dart all around the courtyard. I was already caught up with one weirdo. No need for any more.