Chapter 4 - Windfall

The tavern keeper, Fey was surprised to see, was human. Well, I guess elves wouldn’t aspire to becoming tavern owners. Just as she neared the tavern, he came out to collect wood from a rather small pile near the entrance. The game system informed Fey that this was Tallen, who had moved to Moonwood about ten years ago. A large, cheerful-looking red-haired man, he dropped the wood he was holding upon spotting her. “Ah! So somebody read my notice!” he exclaimed. “I was just about to run out of wood.”

“Yes sir,” Fey replied, “but why do you need all these twiggys?”

“For cooking fires, of course; you can’t cut down trees around here. Well, not unless you want to die.” He chuckled (odd sense of humour). “But twiggys work just as well, so I’m not complaining.” So… We’re not allowed killing trees for wood, but animals are just fine? “Anyways, just pile those over here,” he said, indicating the woodpile, “and I’ll go get your reward.” As Fey untied her bundles and coiled her rope, Tellen disappeared inside and returned with a ten-gold and twenty-gold piece. He handed them over and Fey put them in her pouch, hearing the clink as they hit all of the one- and five-gold pieces she had collected from the monsters. I’d better get them changed to larger denominations before I clink every time I take a step.

“Would you like to come in for a bite to eat? It’s on the house.”

Fey noticed she was hungry. So we get hungry here. I hope we don’t get sleepy. “Sure. I’ll be right in,” she replied. Tallen went back inside, and Fey went to find her pets.

Amethyst was right at the end of the trail. Fey put the slime on her shoulder and continued on. Stumpy was quite a ways further back, about halfway between the village and the twiggy area. Fey picked him up easily, but the circumference of his trunk was too large for her to be able to carry him easily in one hand. Ugh, more trouble than it’s worth. Bracing one end (the head; she wasn’t mean enough to hold him upside down) on her shoulder, she turned around and walked back to the tavern.

The inside of the tavern was more human-looking than the other buildings Fey had been in. The tables and benches were still grown out of the tree, but they had sharper edges and corners that made them look more furniture-like.

“Ah! There you are!” called out Tallen. “I was wondering if you’d been eaten by wolves.” (Fun mental image. Fey wasn’t disturbed at all.) “Sit down and I’ll bring you some stew. Ale or cider?”

“Cider, please.” (Arwyn had been to horseback riding camp, and in her opinion, beer smelled suspiciously like horse piss.) Fey sat down at a table, a couple of seats away from the tavern’s only other patron. Judging by her clothes, Fey guessed that she was a high-level mage (and yes, Fey could now confirm that the sluttiness of the clothing was directly proportional to level). The woman was immersed in a book (no doubt full of arcane knowledge), but looked up as Fey sat down, putting Stumpy on the ground beside her. Her eyes fixed on Amethyst, still on Fey’s shoulder, and she asked, “Why do you have a monster on your shoulder? How do you keep it from attacking?”

“Well, it’s actually a pet,” Fey explained. “You can tame monsters and turn them into pets.”

“You don’t say!” exclaimed the mage. She patted Amethyst, who had hopped onto the table. “It’s so cute! I don’t suppose you’d consider selling it to me?”

“Uh, no.” Fey had grown quite fond of the evil, adorable bag of slime (it reminded her of herself when she was little and still cute. The evil part, of course, had never gone away).

The woman sighed. “Oh well. It looks like its main element is water, anyways. If you had an earth-element pet, I’d really have to buy it from you. I’m an earth mage.”

“Well, actually…,” said Fey, picking Stumpy up and putting him on the table.

“A twiggy! It’s perfect!” exclaimed the mage, examining the twiggy. “I really have to have it; I won’t take no for an answer! I’ll pay you a thousand gold for it.”

“A thousand.” Fey repeated, stunned at the unimaginable riches being offered. Moneymoneymoneymoneymoney…

“No? How about two thousand?”

Fey’s mind had finally caught up, and she said, “Deal,” before the poor (rich, actually) stranger started offering such ridiculous sums that Fey would start feeling guilty.

“Great!” said the mage, and Fey felt rather than saw her open a trade dome.

As this was her first trade, a system notice dropped into her head:

Ah. Fantasia frowns upon con men, I guess.

“Okay,” said the mage, taking out two crystal coins and placing them on the table. “Do you accept two thousand gold in exchange for your pet twiggy?”

“Yes.”

“What did you name it?” asked the mage.

“…Stumpy.”

The mage raised an eyebrow at that. “Well. I think I’ll go with Alder. I’m Terra, by the way.” She held out a hand, and Fey shook it.

“I’m Fey.”

“Fey,” Terra repeated. “I’ll remember that name.”

Now that’s just silly.

Tallen came over with a bowl of stew and a cup of cider.

“Enjoy your meal; I’m going to go see what kind of power I can channel through my new familiar,” said Terra, standing up. She picked up the twiggy and left the tavern.

Putting the coins away (moneymoneymoney), Fey turned to her stew. I guess she’s the curious academic type, always experimenting. Never judge a book by its cover (or indecently cut clothing). A bite of the stew put all such trivial thoughts from her mind. Mmmmmm… If I were a loser who cared about gaining weight, I would rejoice that food like this exists in a video game and start bingeing. Though I bet you can actually get fat in this game. Polishing off the stew, she turned to the cider. It was okay; then again, she had never liked cider. Thanking Tallen for the meal, she left the tavern.

Annoyed at the loud jangle her pouch made every time she took a step (it’s much easier to sneak up on your victims when you can walk quietly. Not that Arwyn had any victims…*innocent face*), Fey wandered off to the banker’s. There she stored her two (beautiful) crystal coins away, and had the rest changed to two fifty-, a twenty- and a five-gold piece (that totals 125g, for those of us that can’t add). She was tempted to go out and blow all her money on new armour and weapons, but logic (barely) prevailed and she decided to wait until she reached level ten and had joined her first class. Speaking of levels, Fey checked her stats again:

That’s more like it. Not that I’m actually strong or anything… Opening up the submenus, Fey saw:

My skills are really… Disparate. Determined to reach level ten and start learning proper warrior skills, Fey went to find something to kill.

Back at the notice board, a couple more quests were now open to her. Some were item collection requests for things like herbs and mushrooms; she ignored these. Another wanted wolf pelts for tanning. Ooh, wolves. Maybe I could get a wolf pet. Fey was about to accept the quest but then reconsidered. She thought about wolves’ teeth, and the fact that their movement speed was faster than that of a turtle. Then she looked down at her oh-so-rippable clothing… Maybe later… Fey didn’t like being in pain (not that there’s anything wrong with that kind of thing).

Looking back at the other requests, Fey realized that the mushrooms[i] being requested were actually killable monsters. Better yet, there were no exact numbers requested; the reward was gold per mushroom. There were five different varieties: white, yellow, green, blue, and poison, from level one to five. The gold per mushroom corresponded to the level of the mushroom. Wary of poison, Fey decided to go for the level four blue mushrooms. And I’m not stopping until I hit level 10.

Footnotes:

[i] Okay, stolen from Maplestory again. But they don’t have white or yellow ones