Eldin ran off tosearch for information, giving me an idea.

If a player or NPC wanted to get information, they could hire a Spy —which was what I believed Eldin’s real class was— or they could hire a Bard. Both had their own way of doing things, which was likely one of the reasons Eldin didn’t get offended when he discovered our low levels.

The first step was to check out the main competitor of the Red Roof Inn, the Sand and Sail tavern, located close to the docks. This tavern had a massive restaurant, a bar that sold many different wines and mead, and more rooms than the half-dilapidated event location.

Mia and I entered the lobby and were immediately taken to the long oak bar when we requested it. I ordered a small meal for us and two tiny glasses of amber mead.

Mia took a cautious sip of hers and then grimaced.

“Taste off?” I asked then took a sip of my own mead. It tasted sweet, felt smooth going down, and burned slightly just like most good elven meads.

“It’s fine, probably... It’s just… I’m underage in my country so the PPVS negated the ‘drunk’ debuff.”

I chuckled. "Yeah, that happens."

As we slowly consumed our meal, buying a fair amount of extra drink and food along the way, I’d throw out conversation topics to the bartender to get him to talk. Eventually, I caught him. He started gossiping about his competitors through the outpost, which included the Red Roof Inn.

“So, that inn actually sells alcohol as well?”

The bartender frowned. “You can’t call that swill, alcohol. It’s more like watered down monster piss.”

“Sounds particularly nasty.” I took another sip. “I can’t believe they’re any competition at all.”

“They haven’t been, recently.” He looked from side to side to make sure his other customers couldn’t overhear and rested his elbow on the countertop. “There is something very strange going on there. I’m sure you’ve heard about the events they host every now and then? The ones they hold in a bad attempt to bring in more customers and help fix up the place at the same time?”

I leaned in.

“They started up a couple of months after the owner and her husband went missing. Those two… They’re known to hunt mobs out in the wild, but they’ve never disappeared for more than a week or two. Until now.

“Some people around here say that she’s sold the inn off to someone else but I haven’t seen any evidence of that. What I think, is that the pair went off adventuring somewhere they shouldn’t have and brought back something nasty and unclean. Now they’re raising it as a pet, and it feeds off the corpses of players.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“I recommend staying away from there.”

I smiled at the man. “I’ll consider it. Thank you.”

“You’re a good little bard. It’s best to stay out of situations like that.”

***

According to the bartender, there were a few more competitors we could check out. One was a small distillery and bar, which we tried to enter but it was closed until night when we’d need be at the inn itself.

The other place was a small bed and breakfast run by an ethereal looking gentleman with pale, blue-white skin. When we entered he let out a long-suffering sigh.

He started spouting prices at us to let us know that this place was very expensive, had few rooms and that our best bet was the tavern if we wanted good prices. Ah, people like him were the hardest to deal with, but I had my ways.

After a scan of the elegant lace art pieces that surrounded the main room, I quickly discovered what he was passionate about. Once I had him talking about handcrafted lace and the various famous artists in that community I moved the conversation gradually towards the Inn in town. And that started him ranting about how awful the place looked and how, regardless of the history of it, they should just tear it down and replace it with something that didn’t ruin the look of the outpost. Especially after so many NPCs and players had died there in the past couple of months, even outside of the event.

“People are dying outside of the event there?”

“Oh yes. If you decide to stay there, even outside of the event, there is a 1 in 10 chance you’ll wind up dead. Even if their price is less expensive than that cheap tavern, you shouldn't risk it.”

Even NPCs died there? That was a surprise. Usually, NPCs were very strong.

“Did the NPCs or any of the players leave any corpses behind?”

He blinked, “No... Wait. I think there were a few possessions left behind by the dead NPCs. The Guard Hall should have taken their things.”

“Thank you for your insights.”

“It was a pleasure. Come back anytime.”

***

“So,” I started summing things up. “We have an old inn owned by a woman who likes to go adventuring with her husband. Rumors have it that they brought back a pet from somewhere. It’s also possible that this whole event is a Death Penalty that the couple has to deal with, though it’s a pretty harsh death penalty if that’s the case.”

“Do you think they brought something back from the Tainted Prison?” Mia asked.

That was a horrifying thought. “No. At least not from the Tainted Prison. That area has a barrier that prevents the Eldritch horrors within it from escaping. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other cursed items or even death penalties that could cause a similar creepiness to occur. Just not with the same infectious nature.”

“Could it also be something normal? Like, I don’t know, maybe it’s smugglers that kill everyone who figures it out?”

I chuckled. “No. There aren’t many laws in the PPVS but whatever laws there are will be enforced by the system in some way or another, so smuggling is next to impossible.”

“So do you think that they brought back a pet monster like the tavern owner said?”

“Doubtful. I mean, there are people who have pets, but generally, pets are non-combat creatures or mounts. And you have to be at least level 15 to have a pet or level 25 to have your own mount. They’re also expensive so most don’t even bother with them when they reach those levels.”

She nodded and looked a bit regretful. Did my bonded want a pet? Maybe I could… stop it. I needed to focus on things I could deal with now.

***

Eventually, we reached the guard station, though it was getting close to dusk so this would have to be our last stop.

Guards generally tended to be straight forward so I asked them if we could look at the items left behind by the NPCs, and after some careful back and forth and a greased palm they brought us to a table where they set up several small boxes filled with random items. Most of it was pretty personal to those who had originally owned them. Eventually, if the NPC didn’t choose to respawn, their family, if they had any, would come to pick these items up.

But, none of it told me anything about what we could expect, so we left after I wrote down a list of the items in the notebook I brought with me.

“There are physical notebooks in this world?”

I rolled my eyes. “There are books here. Why wouldn’t we have physical notebooks?”

“If you have any extra…”

“I don’t.”

She just looked ridiculously cute and disappointed. I threw my notes back into my inventory and clasped my hands behind my back so I didn’t try to hug her.

“We’ll pick some up at the general store on our way back.”

“Nice!” Her gait almost turned into a dance. I’d never seen someone so excited just to have a notebook.