With that quest turned in and a little money now gracing his pocket, Colin knew the first place he wanted to go. The problem is that he didn’t know where he was going, just where he wanted to go. Shrugging at the idea of getting lost, Colin started walking back towards where he respawned and from there walked into the town proper. Following the path that Eldrin had guided him through the previous day was an easy enough task. Mere minutes after leaving the high guard offices and he was walking into a crowd of bustling people.

The smell of the NPCs and the crowded pathway made Colin uncomfortable quickly, and he started pushing his way through the ocean of NPCs. Once free, he walked casually down the much clearer road towards Clyde’s shop. It was the first of stops, and Colin found the weapon shop quickly enough since he’d been there before.

Rounding the corner, he was let out a small sigh of relief that his sense of direction was still pretty keen. If it wasn’t there, Colin would have been ready to ask the first person who passed by and was only glad that he didn’t have to. The less time trying to find places, the better.

Opening the door and stepping inside, Colin immediately spotted Clyde leaning on the counter with his chin in his hands. When Colin closed the reinforced door behind him, the muscled man looked up at Colin and let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh, it’s you. The newbie outworlder from yesterday. I suppose you came here hoping to haggle the prices down a bit so that you can afford a better weapon, right?” the man grumbled. “Well, that is not going to happen. The posted price is the posted price and I will not-”

“I am not here to haggle,” Colin said before whatever rant Clyde was starting could get any more steam. “Really?” he asked, hesitantly impressed. “that’s new for one of…” he coughed into his fist, “you people. So why are you here then, DevilWalker? I mean this politely, but I doubt you got enough copper to afford an upgrade already.”

“True,” Colin agreed. “I was hoping to get some more throwing knives to refill my pouch and maybe a little info if you’re willing?” Colin said.

“Willing, yes. Either for free, no. How many throwing knives do you need?” Clyde asked, all professional now as he stood up straight from the counter.

Putting his right hand into the pouch, he counted the knives in there and was glad he was able to retrieve some of the ones from the newbie quest. “six.” Colin answered as he pulled his hand away from the pouch at the small of his back.

“That will be sixty copper bits then,” Clyde answered quickly then added, “you can also add a couple more to that pouch. Ten was only the amount that came in the starter set. You can hold fifteen, and including the six you needed, that will be ninety copper bits.” He said succinctly.

He had the money, so he pulled out the gold piece he’d gotten from Eldrin and paid the man. Clyde smiled at Colin and reached under the counter, not touching the money until nine perfectly replicated throwing knives, and ten copper bits were placed on the counter.

“Would you like to buy any more weapons today?” Clyde asked, hopefully. If this customer had gotten a copper coin in a day, then just maybe…

“No, not today,” Colin informed him, smashing the hope. “But,” Colin started, patting the copper bits on the counter suggestively.” I would like some… basic info.” Colin told him, leading him on.

“What,” he said with a little edge in his voice. “would you be wanting?”

“Simple,” Colin said, pulling out his map. “Can you indicate on this map where we are and every other shop you would recommend going to. I’d hate to get swindled.” Colin explained with a smile.

“Who does,” Clyde said. “Anything you lookin’ for in particular or just all that I recommend?” Clyde asked.

“All, but if there are any, you’d specifically recommend, then I’d appreciate the help,” Colin instructed.

The burly man hummed in thought for a moment as he looked over the map. Within moments, he found the spot on the map where we were and marked it as Clyde’s weapon shop. From there, he began writing in new labels for specific plots on the map. Names like Bonnie’s Supply depot and Bash’s Armorsmith started to label his map and filling in a few of the empty spaces. A few short minutes later, Clyde was looking at the map with a nod of approval. “Here you go. A decent map of the shops in Willows Cross.” Clyde said, pushing the bits back to Colin that were sitting on the counter, a smile on his face. “No charge.”

Colin absently took the money and poured over the map. At the same time, Clyde watched and waited for the inevitable question, even if he wasn’t sure which question it was. “Which one of these clothing stores would you recommend?” Colin asked, pointing to the two he recommended on the map.

Clyde only had to think about it for a moment. “Jess’s place here,” he pointed to the shop, “focuses more on aesthetics than practicality, but they are well made and not unfairly expensive. Sam’s place is a little different,” he said, putting his thumb and forefinger to his chin and rubbing it as he thought about how to answer. “Sam’s clothes are designed to appeal more to some of your outworlder aesthetics. She can also use special materials, techniques, and enchantments on them to make them almost as good as some armors. Personally, I’d suggest going here,” he pointed to the first shop he’d indicated. “She’s a little cheaper, and especially for a low leveled person, I think cheaper might be best.”

Nodding along as he followed Clyde’s descriptions, he found himself thinking about the second stored he’d named. Sam’s store seemed like it might be a custom order kind of place that players might go for style, but the special order aspect of the shop made him think she might be more useful that Jess. Worst case scenario, he could go to Jess’s shop after Sam’s if it proved too expensive.

Then for the second time today, Colin cursed his in-game poorness as he remembered that he didn’t have the funds for anything now. He might want to put off his raid on Harvey Regic’s place until he equipped himself better.

“Thank you, Clyde. I think that’s all I needed from you today,” Colin said as he picked up the map and started folding it back up.

But before Colin even half folded the map, Clyde placed a large hand on the map, stopping him from proceeding. “Wait, DevilWalker. Why does your map have this location marked with the name Harvey Regic?” he asked in a low voice, all professionalism gone.

“Its a quest from the High Guard captain, Eldrin. Why do you ask?” Colin asked carefully. Unless otherwise told, discretion was always key in missions. Or quests as they’re called here.

Taking a heavy breath, Clyde said, “That building is in one of the rougher parts of town. That building, in particular, has been especially dangerous since Harvey took up residence there. I had a stubborn sibling living there until that building went on lockdown. What were you asked to do?” Clyde asked.

Watching Clyde’s face as he spoke, the man never broke face contact or twitched nervously or gave any other visible sign that he was lying. Colin watched for another moment to confirm and found that he believed what Clyde was saying. Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Detect Falsehood level 1. You can tell if someone is lying or telling the truth at a glance. Warning, this skill can be countered by someone with the bluff skill without your knowledge Huh, cool. A new skill that ought to be useful.

“You’ll not talk about this, right? You won’t tell anybody like a wife or-” Colin said only to have Clyde cut him off with a wave of his hand.

“No wife, no girlfriend, and currently no lover either. I don’t have many friends, and I don’t expect to see them anytime soon. Honestly, this is the most I’ve talked to someone in a few days. Trust me, DevilWalker. I won’t be talking to anybody about this secret quest.” he assured Colin.

Again, no visible sign of lying, so Colin figured, why not?

“I have been tasked by the High Guard Captain to go in there and retrieve a stolen ring. Also, I’m to bring him back alive. Why?” Colin asked.

“Hhhrrrmmm,” Clyde grumbled to himself for a long moment as his stare focused at the marked spot on the half folded map in contemplation. Colin recognized the look on the weapon dealer’s face and wondered what the man hadn’t told him. He looked like he was thinking about someone who had wronged him and was figuring out how to get revenge.

“DevilWalker, I really don’t do this, but I’d like to offer you a quest,” Clyde said as he looked back up into Colin’s face.

“What kind of quest?” Colin asked. “You do realize what kind of trouble Eldrin’s quest will be already, so I can’t promise anything.”

“Fair,” Clyde said flatly. “like I told you, I had a stubborn sibling who was living there before the building was locked down by Harvey’s gang. What I didn’t say was that I hadn’t heard from the asshole since then. My request is a bit varied. I’d like you to check his apartment and see what you find. If you find him, try and get him out with you. If you find his body, then bring back the crafting hammer that would be on his person. Do you think you can do that for me? I can offer you a permanent ten percent discount in my store AND five copper coins for the trouble. How does this sound?” he asked seriously. Quest: Missing Persons: Roy Clyde. Objective: Search the previous residence of Roy Clyde and discover his fate. If he is alive, bring him to his brother, Haversham Clyde. If dead, bring back his personal crafting hammer as proof. Reward: A permanent 10% discount in Clyde’s Arms and 20 copper coins. Will you accept? Yes/ No Nodding, Colin spoke, “I will not guarantee that I will be able to look for your brother. I will probably only have one good shot at this before they increase their security and make it impossible for me at my level. If I can do so safely, then I will.” Colin explained, hoping that Clyde would accept his words.

Nodding once in acknowledgment, Clyde said, “agreed. Is there anything in here that might make your job easier? I am willing to give you that discount now if it helps.” Clyde said hopefully.

Looking around, Colin again found his eyes landing on the firearm that hung on the wall. He so wished that he could just walk out of here with it but even with the discount offered it would be too expensive.

With nothing else immediately catching his attention, Colin shook his head. “No, I think that’s all I need from you. Thanks, though,” Colin said as he finished folding up the map. As he turned and walked towards the door, he thought to himself that this was an interesting coincidence. Resupplying and getting another quest due to it.

Also, he made a quick mental note to tease Clyde on his real name on a later date. Seriously? Who names their kid, Haversham.

With his low funds, Colin figured his next priority should be to get some more money to get more gear. With gear, he could increase his odds of survival with higher leveled monsters, NPCs, and even other players. From what was experienced already, his out of game training could impact his chances here and make some amount of levels insignificant against him. If he’d been fighting against Monty alone or even one other of his group, he might have won.

Snarling a little at that thought, Colin wondered what that traitorous asshole was doing right now and only hoped Morenstad had passed along his message. He would be coming for them as soon as he knew he could win against all four of them.

He wandered the streets for several minutes, contemplating his options and thinking about what these types of games frequently offered players. From what he knew, there was the Adventurer’s Guild, that sort of organization was practically a staple in fantasy genres. There were also thieves guilds, mage colleges, mercenary groups, religious militaries, and any number of things in between them. Any of those would be an excellent way to earn some copper. Still, Colin found himself disliking the idea almost immediately. It was likely that he would need to join a group to get good jobs and quests from them instead of… blech, fetch quests.

Especially here, in a game where you actually walked around, going to a place to get stuff, then coming back to the exact same location sounded mind-numbingly tedious.

Meandering along one of the less used streets, he spent some time learning through observation as he thought about what he could guess. No matter where he looked, there was always an NPC, or what he assumed was an NPC since there wasn’t a right way to tell them apart, standing around or doing something that looked organic. Nothing seemed preprogrammed into this world. A young boy was called inside his house as Colin passed by, a gray-haired man was sweeping the street outside his shop while another man seemed to be talking up a pretty young thing. The sweeping man rolled his eyes at the actions of the man and tried to ignore him.

Continuing on, Colin stopped as he heard shouting coming from nearby.

“You owe me fifty copper bits for those chickens you took from me!”

“I took nothing. Those chickens were bought from the market last week,” a woman’s voice said calmly.

Curious, Colin moved in to see what might happen as he watched the goings-on from across the street. A grumbling middle-aged man that could easily be described as toad-ish was practically screaming at a woman several years younger than himself. She was standing with her arms crossed over her chest and stern expression plastered on her face.

At this point, a small crowd of townsfolk had started to crowd around the two people arguing. While the man took no notice of it, the woman did and tried not to look too uncomfortable with all the unwanted attention.

“Took nothing!” he roared, “my chickens go missing, and the next day, you get the exact same amount of chickens! That is no coincidence! Give me back my chickens!” the man yelled at the top of his lungs, taking a threatening step towards the woman.

“Sir-” she tried to say in warning before he took another step and moved to grab her.

Colin had a hand on one of his daggers and was about to intervene when someone else did so first.

Before the man’s hand could even graze her skin, a flat plane of light winked into existence in its path. The light dimmed a little to reveal that the plane of light was actually a two-dimensional magic circle that was spinning in the air elegantly.

The man’s hand continued forward and touched the circle, only to hiss and recoil in pain as the light contact burned his fingertips.

“Aren’t you a little old to be picking on a lone woman?” A voice called as the man, and Colin started to look around the street for whoever created that effect.

Both Colin and the angry chicken farmer were watching as a little woman waded through the crowd. Working towards the pair that stood in the middle of the group. She was fascinating to behold. Short black hair, pale skin, and Asian features gave Colin the belief that this woman was a player that she most likely came from somewhere in China. She wore a billowy turquoise skirt and a white blouse that was tight enough that it left Colin trying not to focus on it. On her wrists hung a silver and gold band each respectfully, and Colin was confident that they were more than simple decoration.

“Who the hell are you?!” the man yelled.

“Me?” she said innocently. “My name is Rena. But the real question here is... “she paused. “Why are you attempting to grab someone threateningly like that? In the middle of the day, no less. In front of this large crowd, I doubt that you would have gotten away with laying a hand on her, even if I hadn’t stopped you.” she explained coolly.

Immediately, the man’s face drained of color as he looked around and seemed to register where he was and how many people were watching him. He took a step away from the woman that he’d been accusing, instead pointing his finger at the woman who’d defended her. “S-she stole from me. My chickens are gone and-”

“No, they’re not,” Rena stated confidently. “I can see that you have had a misfortune, sir, but that is no excuse to try and swindle this woman.”

The man’s face flushed red with anger as he blustered, “what are you talking about? The only misfortune that I have had is this-”

“Just stop it,” Rena said, cutting the man off. “I am a Clairvoyant, sir. I can see that you are lying to her and us and are trying to replace a loss. Why didn’t you go talk to the hunters guild and tell them about the animal that got into your coop? The might have even reimbursed you for your loss if you reported it first to stop it from killing and eating more livestock.”

Eyes shifting back and forth as if looking for an escape, the man let out a long breath. “What are the chances of that? The hunters don’t like to do that, and if they did do it, they would be annoyed at me for wasting their time with my chickens,” he said mournfully.

“So you start hassling a woman who did nothing to you in an attempt to get her chickens?” Rena asked for clarification.

“Yes, I did,” he said, his tone defeated as he looked down at the ground between his boots.

“You guys heard that, right?” Rena called behind her.

Working their way through the small crowd walked two plate armor covered men that had been hanging back at the back of the group. Waiting for Rena to call them.

“Yeah,” said one of the men. “He confessed and will face charges. Lucky for him that you stopped him from actually hurting her. Otherwise, the charges would have been significantly worse.”

The man swallowed as the two men walked up to him, and one of them pulled out a pair of manacles that looked kind of like handcuffs and slapped them on the offender. The man never did struggle or say another word as one of the men carried him off through the crowd that parted as the guard, and his captive walked by.

“Thank you, Rena.” The remaining guard said with a small bow. “As usual, your clairvoyance has come very handy.”

“I am always willing to help. Especially if…” Rena trailed off, looking at the man as if he forgot something, and she was trying to remind him without actually saying it.

The guard nodded, “of course.” he said as he reached into the breastplate of his shiny armor and pulled out a single copper coin. “Please, keep up the good work,” he said before walking away, following his partner’s path. The woman stared at the single copper coin that had been given to her and started to follow the two men, yelling, “one copper coin? the standard pay for this is two!”

A few seconds later, and the woman was out of sight. The crowd, now with nothing to spectate, started to disperse to their previous tasks. Several of them were grumbling about how this was over too quick to count as even a decent story to tell. Colin was of a different mindset.

He’d just seen a clairvoyant in action. She’d, at a glance, observed that the man was lying and had accurately stated what had happened to his chickens. It certainly was a display of what a class could do out of combat, and Colin’s interest was piqued. He needed to know more about the Clairvoyant’s abilities that let them do what they do. Hopefully, he’d be able to replicate it. The information he could gather would give him an edge anywhere he went.

But that was something that he’d have to do later. After he finished his current quests and had received his class. Maybe it would help him do it anyway.

With this incident over, Colin resumed his walk and continued his observations.

He’d been walking for several minutes when Colin came across an establishment that made him smile. It was another staple but would probably be much more helpful than just wandering around while mulling things over. So without a thought, Colin walked over to a squat looking three-story building with a wooden sign hanging over the door that had a picture of a frothing mug burned into it. The words ‘Brewed Perfection’ was scorched in large, elegant letters over the door, and Colin wasn’t sure what to expect but only hoped he could afford it.