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by R J Triveri

  Athos knew a few things about bad memories. “Some people don’t like to dwell in the past.”

  “Makes sense to me,” Walter relented as he started walking again.

  “So, the guild... Is it like in those old games?”

  “Well, kind of. See, it’s based on that systems from that the world is built on but not quite.”

  “Care to elaborate?” Athos asked as they crossed the halfway point.

  “Well, here, it’s more like a family I guess. A guild is just a bunch of people working together, living together, and helping each other out. Some of them are about as nuts as squirrel shit, but they’re easy enough to pick out by name alone. Most of ‘em are pretty on the level. Never joined one myself though, just freelanced.” His hand raised and pointed at something in the distance. “There, the building near the one with the inn sign.”

  “With the green roof?”

  “No, the brown slate one. That’s the guild house. It’s the heart of the city. Beautiful, isn’t she?” Walter said with an almost longing tone in his voice. Shaking his head, he brought himself back to reality. “All the guilds across the world find their members in the hall. Just go check out the recruiter.” Looking up at the sky, then opening his screen, Walter looked a bit nervous. “I’ve been gone too long. Sally’s going to kill me. Do you think you can get there yourself?” Athos nodded. “Well, it’s been real interesting, Athos.”

  “I could say the same.” If he discounted the wagon ride.

  “You… keep in touch. Okay?” Walter shifted a bit from the front of his feet to his heels as his mind seemed to be working on something. “And don’t die.”

  “I think I can manage that.” Then a thought hit him. “Wait, Walter, why does everyone keep saying that to me?”

  “What?”

  “Not to die.”

  “Oh,” rubbing the back of his head, Walter hesitated. Opening his screen again, he checked something. “No reason really, or at least not one worth mentioning.”

  “Walter?”

  His body shifted uncomfortably before answering. “I really need to get going, Athos.”

  “What aren’t you telling me, Walter?”

  His face fell and his body seemed to tense as he looked Athos over. “There are some people that still hold a prejudice from the Great Hunt.”

  Athos waited for more, but the silence thickened like morning mist on a spring day. “Walter?”

  Walter sighed and turned away from Athos. “Check your mail. It isn’t proper to speak about it in public.” With those words, Walter made his exit as Athos stood by, dumbfounded by the strange turn of events.

  Once again, he was left alone regardless of the citizens on either side of him. He caught his hand waving despite Walter’s back being towards him. Athos had hoped for a better run of luck now that he had met the man, but now he just felt empty. “Goodbye, Walter.”

  Turning from the shrinking image of the man, Athos looked ahead to the brown-roofed guild house. As the curiosity bubbled within him, he did have to find something to help him become productive, so his feet decided to take action. Each step brought him closer to the guild house and its details into a clearer focus. The building looked old and had a stacked stone base with wooden walls and small windows that folded rather than rose to open. To add to its aged appearance, small patches of moss were growing in places along the stonework, and two darker, wooden doors were set and framed as the entrance. It seemed so out of place compared to the other buildings, but if Athos knew one thing about games, the most important buildings were always a little out of place.

  “Well, here goes everything,” he said to himself.

  The door was already open from a previous visitor, so he let himself in and looked around. It wasn’t as impressive as the doors might have led him to believe. Scanning the room, he saw plenty: a large cork board stuffed with notes, an ornate desk with a rather regal looking man holding an equally regal looking book, a few couches surrounding a table, and stairs on either side of the desk leading to a second floor. The most confusing of all though had to be the wall set with pigeon holes for mail. Wasn’t all mail delivered directly to the user?

  There were a few others engaged in their own little worlds of conversation, so Athos continued his solo adventure towards the desk. “Excuse me.”

  Upon Athos’s closer inspection, the man looked even more important close-up. He was more elderly than the alchemist had thought at first glance, wearing his top hat squarely on top of his skull, his monocle neatly tucked into his right eye socket, his vest and jet black pants over a white, button-up shirt. However, his language, well, it didn’t do the regal appearance justice. “Newbie?”

  Was it always this easy to tell? “Yes. My name is…”

  The man sighed, interrupting Athos. “Looking for a handout, I assume?”

  Just the way his voice carried itself, the way he looked down on Athos’s simple existence grated on what little remained of his good will. “I’m looking to get settled.”

  “Handouts it is, then,” the bookkeeper said as he flipped a few pages in the guild’s ledger.

  Athos felt his voice rising in his throat as the words escaped him, “What did I do to you?”

  “It’s not what you’ve done,” the regal man explained. “It’s what you won’t do. You are nothing but a leech looking for experience. Why shouldn’t I be annoyed with that.”

  “I’ll make my keep,” Athos assured. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he could hold his promise, but if he could, he would be more than willing to do it just to prove the man wrong.

  “Profession?” His tone didn’t change as a few more pages flipped.

  “Alchemist, Rank One,” his face flushed a bit. Should he have been higher before coming here? Why would Auxi tell him to go somewhere he’d be sent away from? Why would Walter even suggest it?

  The man’s expression didn’t change from its steady stream of discontent and annoyance as he stopped flipping pages and set the book down. “Alright then, these are the current guilds looking to recruit alchemists.” Raising his hand from the book, he made the usual motion to bring up his status screens, but instead of the usual glowing white, it was a soft green. Turning it around, Athos could see the screen clearly.

  0 guilds actively recruiting rank one alchemists

  Athos sighed as he looked at the lit zero starring back at him.

  The tone of the bookkeeper did nothing to soften the blow. “Tough luck, Alchemist. Better luck in the future. Well, if you have one that is.”

  Looking up at him as the screen dissipated, Athos had choice words that fell flat inside of his mouth. Instead, he turned back and let his eyes rest on the couch. Well, at least he had somewhere to sit for the time. As he sat down, he realized he could feel how soft the cushioned surface felt against him, and just for a moment, the alchemist let himself drift off into his thoughts about home, family, and what in Incipere he was going to do with his life.

  Side Quest

  “Ouch, haven’t heard the old AI assail an individual like that in some time, Alchemist.”

  Resting his head further back, Athos looked at the owner of the voice. Wild blue hair reigned on the top of his skull with bushy eyebrows and a beard to match. His clothing held different shades of blue, as well. “He’s a bit of a bastard.”

  Despite being short, the male jumped over the couch and came to a rest after a pair of bounces. Even sitting next to him, the man was dwarfed by Athos by at least a foot. “Aye, that’s one way to put it. Don’t blame him though, some of the Inciperians don’t take well to freedom and let their programming run its course unchecked. Guildkeeper is just how he was born, and that’s how he will always be.” Holding out his hand, the man dressed in blue grinned a toothy white grin. “Azure’s the name, and, for you, Alchemist, I’ve got an offer you can’t refuse.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Oh, it is! Trust me, Azure has all the connections. Need some bytes? I can find it for you. Nee
d a place to stay? Can do that too. Need a bounty removed? I know a guy. All this and more can be at your disposal for the right price.”

  “And if I don’t have the money?”

  “Oh, there are plenty of ways to get around money,” Azure explained, relaxing into the couch. “If we’re being straight with each other, alchemists that are willing to work are in short supply and it’s… in my best interest to have one I can call on.”

  After a moment, Athos sighed. “Maybe another time, Azure. Not to sound rude, but your offer sounds a little too good to be true.”

  “And what’s so wrong with being too good to be true if you are true?” Azure prodded.

  “The right place, the right time, the right price… it just seems a little shady to me,” the alchemist finally relented.

  “Shady?” Azure’s voice sounded rather hurt as his face added to the effect. “You scar me, Alchemist. I come to offer you help after seeing you so dejected, and this is how I am treated? Rebuffed and rejected?” The blue man stood up, looked Athos in the face, then kicked his shin.

  “Ow!” Those boots inlaid with fancy filigree weren’t just for show as pain shot though Athos. In a quick moment, he bent over to rub against the spot that the shorter man impacted, but what distracted him more was at the top of his vision. A small gauge appeared flashing red that read:

  Damage received: 94% integrity.

  “Good day to you, sir!” Azure offered for what good time he felt he wasted on the alchemist and was quickly away.

  “You dwarf bastard!” Athos cried to himself as the pain began to subside. As a sucker punch or a boon, Azure didn’t hear him and had moved on to another group discussing something that caught his interest.

  Feeling like the idiot he was, he sat back in the chair and sighed. If he couldn’t even stop a dwarven wanna be from kicking him, how was he going to defend himself? Opening his inventory screen, he materialized his book again to look through his recipes and brews. Five brews were all he had at his disposal and two of them he had already used. Obscurus Arum was the opposite of the Sol Arum he had used earlier, Pyrothium, which was basically a campfire starter in a bottle, and Venefirous, a weak poison brew that could only deal minor damage and deter things. Sadly, it didn’t last too long in either respect. Throw in the liquid light and plant food, he had a regular hodgepodge of uselessness.

  Even more useless, he couldn’t do anything without vials, and his current inventory held a grand total of zero. His total funds to purchase some were also sitting at a grand zero. It appeared to him that his luck was holding with its nose pointed straight to Hell at this point.

  Before his depression grew, a thought occurred to him. Didn’t Azure say something about bounties? Bounties meant there had to be some quest system in place. Quests meant rewards. Rewards usually meant money! Money meant he could buy things and actually do something useful…

  His mind raced to remember the few things the books had been accurate about so far, but the list came up rather short until a thought occurred to him. Tasks were always supposed to be posted somewhere in every city. When someone needed something, they created a quest. Walter had said that the guild house was the heart of the city, hadn’t he? It shouldn’t be too hard to pick it out. Hadn’t there been a bulletin board where he walked in at?

  Getting up from his seat, Athos picked his way across the room towards where he had walked in. Keeping his head low, he tried to avoid the stares of Guildkeeper. He wasn’t sure if just looking at or being seen by the man would trigger his event, but he wasn’t looking forward to a second round of verbal lashings.

  As he reached his destination, the board wasn’t quite what he expected. It looked like a simple cork board with a few notes on it written in a language that seemed like gibberish; However, reaching up to grab one of the notes to examine closer triggered its hidden nature.

  Greetings!

  There are currently 14,342 open requests in Incipere. There are 200 open requests in Oenus and its traversable area. Please select the category of request you would like to view.

  Local or World

  The screen was a soft yellow, almost gold, as the letters appeared in black. It didn’t take his hand long to raise to the local area.

  Thank you for your interest in the Incipere Request System for your local region. Please take the time to narrow your results to better understand what is being asked of you and reduce your wait time.

  Hunting

  Gathering

  Delivery

  Other

  Thank God! Something was finally making sense. The four categories seemed obvious, but what would be the easiest to accomplish? Raising his hand again, he pressed against the gathering option. It seemed easy enough.

  Gathering:

  The following people have requests you meet the requirements of and have been active in the past twenty-four hours in town.

  Aver Median requests mint leaves (22) for cooking.

  Paul Skrzypak requests mint leaves (10) for cooking.

  Astor Cullden requests nightshade berries (15) for hunting.

  Sally Queen requests iron pyrite (5) for refinement purposes.

  Pressing his fingers against each name, he heard a ping and watched it disappear from the request window. It might cost him some of his not-so-hard won materials, but at least it would give him something to look forward to later.

  Your map has been updated with four way-points. The recipient has been informed of your arrival. Please proceed to each in a timely manner, and thank you for using the Incipere Request System.

  The fact that there was no mention of a reward tugged at him a bit, but he didn’t have any other leads, and it wasn’t like there was anywhere else, or anyone else for that matter, to ask about making money.

  Walking to the door once more, Athos fired up his map and saw four blinking lights in addition to a much scaled down map complete with building markers and names. It would have been nice if he checked it sooner or if Walter had told him the map adapted.

  Errand Boy

  If his knowledge of how the quest system worked in other games carried over to Incipere, Athos figured that all he would have to do is go to the person, give them the materials, and he would be rewarded with something. Right now, something was much, much better than nothing. With something, he could at least negotiate staying at an inn for a night or so, maybe even save up enough to get some reagents and vials too. Then it was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from becoming a true citizen and being established.

  Alright, Athos thought to himself, four points. This won’t be so hard.

  According to the map, the closet of the four were for Paul Skrzypak and Astor Cullden at some place called the Powder Keg. Knowing this world, it was either a pub or a gun shop. He didn’t really have time to argue with himself as he turned down the street and made his way through the somewhat busy town. Really, it couldn’t be called busy as he knew it.

  Back on Earth, the skies were full of metal and menace as cars whizzed by within inches of houses and towering glass skyscrapers. Socialites projected conversations inches from their face as they walked and discussed their latest body mods. Tubers did crazier and crazier things to earn the money of their fans. Streamers, well, he didn’t mind them too much. They just played their games. In here, busy seemed to mean a few people were walking by, tending their gardens, or just talking as they walked down a paver lined street.

  In all honesty, the world wasn’t as bad as he imagined.

  Despite the houses looking the same for the most part, the lack of fatigue, and the lingering knowledge that things weren’t real, well not like home had been, he was starting to feel a little more relaxed. Though if he were being honest with himself, it wasn’t that hard to relax after the past few days he’d had.

  Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. As he walked, he opened his inventory window and went to his friends list. Walter Queen was still in town, but his area had updated to the marketplace and was marked as busy.
Splitting his attention as he slowed his pace, he clicked on the magnifying glass.

  Search for a user?

  He thought for a moment on how the name might be spelled before typing: Ioh Porta.

  No User found.

  Avatar found: Ioh Porta - Forest of the Dryad - Send Message?

  Well, what was the difference? When he clicked on his message tab, the screen changed to a window very like the screen his optics had used whenever he wanted to send an e-mail. Another small comfort, he thought as he stopped at the corner of two streets to type.

  Ioh,

  I wanted to thank you for all you did for me. I just wanted you to know that I’ve made it to Oenus, and I’m currently doing a few errands to earn some money. At least, I hope that’s what will happen. I’ve never done something like this before. My friend Walter showed me how to do this, so I just thought I should send a more proper thank you.

  Seeing the small inventory screen at the bottom, he clicked it and moved five more of the mint as an attachment.

  I’ve attached a little more mint for your pets. I hope I didn’t take too much and that it will grow back soon.

  Take care, Athos.

  Clicking the send button closed the screen and Athos was on the move again. Bringing up the map, he noticed he was closing in on his destination and that a new, small button had appeared at the top of his screen. With a click, the map shrunk, moved to the top left corner of his vision, and became transparent when his attention wasn’t on it. Again and more than likely not for the last time, the thought occurred to him that having an instruction manual would have been nice.

  Another few more steps and clouds of dust later placed him in front of the Powder Keg. A curious place to be sure with its name driving its design. For the most part, it looked much like someone had just built a giant barrel, put a sign on it, and placed it square in the middle of a city. Its doors fit perfectly into the sides of the shape to continue the illusion.