I followed Dunstan traversing the streets of Amberkeld, almost jogging to keep up with his speed. It would’ve been grating if this NPC moved slowly. We traveled the length of the street the church was on, entered a narrow alley with a couple of shops selling magical scrolls, then turned right to “Pie Lane”, as the wooden signpost at the intersection displayed.

It was a much older street, its width uneven, the stones on the ground weathered by decades of feet, wheels, and whatever fantastical creatures or vehicles passed over it. It was also very crowded. Not only were the buildings right next to each other with no space even for a knife to fit in between, their upper floors also extended out on the street to maximize space as much as possible. From the people coming in and out of these buildings, to those I could see on the balconies and through open windows, I could tell this was part of the residential area.

“If you’re ever lost in a town or city, just look at the signposts,” Dunstan said, pointing at one.

“Yeah, I know—wow, what’s this?” Concentrating on the sign brought up a map of the town before me. They didn’t have that map already floating around at the side of the screen? Perhaps this was done to encourage exploration since that was one of the main goals in MCO, and also to increase immersion.

“Or you can ask around,” he added. “The guards are helpful, that is if they know the place you’re looking for.”

Our pace slowed when we reached a throng of people gathering in front of a row of shops. In contrast to the usual groups of NPCs milling about to give the illusion of life in this town, these guys were mostly players. And that got me curious.

Even more interesting, the smell of baked goods I noticed earlier appeared to come from this place. These were the communal cookshop of the town—Pie Lane, it should’ve immediately clicked—and these were realistic to the Middle Ages. The average downtrodden schmuck at that time didn’t have kitchens in their crowded homes, so everyone came to these shops.

I’d understand NPCs, but what did players want here?

Food, obviously, I thought, answering my own question. They could be some type of healing consumables or could provide buffs. I contemplated returning later to check this place when Dunstan himself stopped in front of a store.

He said, “Oh, I almost forgot. Captain Edmund gave me a couple of these.” Two bronze tokens sat on his palm. “I’m giving you one, so don’t forget you owe me.”

[ Received: Basic Food Token ]

“I suppose I’m going to use it to claim free food?” I opened my inventory with a mental command to check my financial situation. It was dire. “Damn, I don’t have a single, er…Arta…to my name?” I said, referring to the in-game currency. “Thanks for this, my friend for life, my brother from another mother.”

We waded through the customers buying food and met [Human Lvl 9| Amberkeld Master Baker: Pomphrey], a jolly plump lady with greying hairs. She was very passionate about the goods she was selling. “Pick one from this shelf, laddie, any of them. All are delicious!”

[Roog Meat Pie: +5 All Attributes (Might, Vitality, Spirit, Sense) for 30 Minutes] ★☆☆☆☆

[Hard Pretzel: +5 HP per 5 seconds for 30 Minutes] ★☆☆☆☆

[Gingerbread: +15% Experience and Gli for 1 Hour] ★☆☆☆☆

Experience boost wouldn’t matter since I was just going to explore the game instead of power level. That also applied to the other two choices. All had only one star out of five; that could mean these were basic items, or they sucked, perhaps both. I ended up picking [Roog Meat Pie] because it sounded tasty.

“Good choice,” said Pomphrey the baker. “All of them are good choices. Don’t you think so?”

“I always tell my friend that the meat pie here is the best,” Dunstan proudly replied.

“Yeah, sure,” I sarcastically said. “You always tell me that.” There was the option to consume the food item I just got—it was pitifully alone in my inventory—and under that were the choices ‘Instant’ and ‘Manual’. I picked the second one and I now held a small circular pastry.

It felt warm on my palms. I took a bite. And holy crap it tasted like…meat pie. There was nothing special about it. The crust was average, maybe below average. The meat had a strong taste, not necessarily gamey, but it was distinctly powerful. It could be this ‘Roog’, if that was an animal and not just the name of the pie.

But that wasn’t the astounding part. What shocked me was that tastes like this one could be experienced in a virtual world. Food items with more stars could be tastier.

“What do you think of it, laddie?”

“Very delicious,” I said. Acting well towards an NPC was the right call most of the time.

“Marvelous.” Pomphrey clapped her hands. “And since you’re a well-mannered lad, here are some leftovers from yesterday that we haven’t sold yet.”

[ Received: 5 Stale Buns ]

[Stale Buns: Restore 20 HP] ☆☆☆☆☆

“No star?”

“Thank you, Madam Pomphrey,” Dunstan said.

“Good luck on your job, laddies,” said Pomphrey. “If you feel the call to cook for others, don’t hesitate to come here. I sense you have a great sense of taste.”

This should be another choice for a job. A support job of sorts. I’d study it later after I was done helping Dunstan. “Thanks for the zero-star bread,” I said, waving goodbye.

The end of Pie Lane intersected with a wide road that led to a massive gate flanked by two round towers that housed guards. Right at the gate, a small group of level ten guards cursorily checked those entering the town. Only NPCs seemed to be passing through here.

After leaving the town—the guards paid us no mind—we crossed a short stone bridge that slightly arched over a narrow river. Scratch that, not a river. A moat. There was a river on the far end of the length of the walls where the townspeople diverted water to fill this moat. The stone bridge continued on to a rudimentary road, just flattened dirt cleared of rocks, that snaked onwards to the forest.

“There’s the captain.” Dunstan excitedly ran to some NPCs standing right outside the line of trees.

[Human/Lar Lvl 21| Amberkeld Captain of the Guards: Edmund Lelantyr] was impressively large and imposing as he stood beside what I presumed to be his mount, a hunched over lizard-like creature the size of a horse. Select pieces of high-quality metal plating covered parts of the simple leather armor set the captain wore—the equivalent of being the “cool” manager, throwing on an expensive blazer over a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

He was the first NPC I saw with two races. This must be the base plus the variant the Dalkanus mentioned, although I hadn’t heard of a ‘Lar’ before.

Captain Edmund talked to a satyr, the same one I saw a few moments after I spawned in town. A nice touch for storytelling. The captain turned to us. “Took you long enough, Dunstan. You can’t be damn late if you want to guard Amberkeld.”

“Sorry, Captain Edmund, sir!” Dunstan said. “I had to find my friend here.”

“Don’t make me your excuse,” I said, “my freckled long-time friend.”

“This is an easy task, so don’t mess this up,” Captain Edmund boomed. “It’s Erwah season and those pesky Giant Horned Beetles have been getting busy in their burrows. Unfortunately, one of their new holes is right next to the road and their Grublings thought that the first thing they should do after hatching is to snack on some textiles.

“Don't worry about the big Papa and Mama bugs. The town guards are driving them away at the far eastern side of the forest. But now, I got no one to take care of this simple task except the two of you squeaky noses. Mess this up, and you can say goodbye to your chance of being a guard.”

The sobbing Satyr merchant chimed in, “I’ve spent my life savings on those rolls of expensive Anuc wool. I have many customers in Amberkeld waiting for their orders, but the Grumblings have surrounded my wagons and are probably eating them!”

“You heard him, boys,” said Captain Edmund. “Time is of the essence to save this satyr’s business.”

“And to think we had time for snacks along the way,” I said with a chuckle.

[ Quest: Squash the Grubs ]

Prove to Captain Hugh Edmund that you have what it takes to be a Town Guard of Amberkeld.

Eliminate all ten (10) Horned Grublings and save the satyr textile caravan before it’s too late.

“And accept.” My very first quest. “Hold on, am I just going to punch them?”

“As a trainee to be a guard, you’ll need weapons,” Captain Edmund said. “It’ll take too much time if we returned to town to rummage around the armory, so you’ll have to do with the spares I got here.” He turned to the grunting lizard creature beside him and searched the large sacks hanging from its broad scaly side.

[ Received: Worn Leather Vest ]

“Worn leather…five armor,” I muttered as I read the item. “What is this shit?”

“You don’t get to be picky, boy. You’re wasting time.”

“You’re right. Sorry, captain.” It now showed up in my inventory, accompanying the five stale bread from Pomphrey. With a mental command, I equipped the leather vest. This was a beginner’s quest supposed to teach game mechanics; they were usually designed to be very hard to fail even for an absolute idiot. Gear shouldn’t matter. “What else you got for me?”

[ Received: Rusty Dagger ]

Rusty Dagger | Item Level: 1

Common | Melee | One-Handed

2-5 Physical Damage

1.55 Attacks per Second

“Can I speak to a manager?” I said as I examined the dagger. “I know I’m just level one, but can I get something decent? You’re literally handing me junk. Why bring around these things that should’ve been thrown away?”

“Grublings are weaker than a baby,” barked Captain Edmund. “That is if that baby is as big as a Brown-Bellied hog right before it is up to be butchered. But it’s still a baby!”

“Rust. Hmm, can I get tetanus from this?” I had no idea because there was no Aspect of Herald Stone that studied medicine. The more important question, however, was if I could get hurt from this. I stabbed my palm. Five health points were subtracted from my health bar. “Oh shit, that’s unexpected.”

“They already have horns,” Captain Edmund continued, “but those should be small and don’t excrete poison like the big mommas do. No problem at all if you keep your wits about you and fight decently.”

“We’re ready and well-equipped, captain,” Dunstan said gripping the hilt of this short sword hanging from his belt.

[ Join Dunstan’s Party: Y/N? ]

“You have something decent?” I said after accepting his party invitation. “Dunstan, my friend for several years, remember that time we…uh…Yeah, remember the good times we had? All our moments of friendship? Can I trade my rusty dagger for your weapon?”

“This is my Gramps weapon from when he was an adventurer. I can’t let this go. If we finish this quest, I’m sure the captain has a reward for you.”

“I’m not counting on anything worthwhile from that guy,” I said as the two of us followed the dirt road to look for the satyr’s caravan.

Around a minute’s jog into the forest, we met several distraught satyr NPCs pulling along a feathered beast of burden like those I saw in the town. However, these weird oxen covered in feathers weren’t pulling anything. Up ahead were three overturned carriages, rolls of cloth scattered everywhere.

The satyrs pleaded with us to help them, pointing at the obvious quest. We obliged and approached the carriages, but I couldn’t see the enemies. I took out my dagger and Dunstan unsheathed his short sword.

“Can you be the bait—uh, I mean can you move ahead?” I told him. “You have a higher level and better gear after all.”

“No problem, my friend. Just stay behind me.”

The Grumblings burst out of the dirt, fleshy pale maggots about as big as a man. Captain was right. Each of them had tiny nobs on their heads that were the growing horns. If these were newborns, how big would their parents be?

“Are you ready, my friend?”

“Of course, my brother-in-arms. Time for glorious battle!”