"Holy shit, you actually took up that quest?"

The sweat covered girl stopped scrubbing the stone like a maniac and turned around. Behind her was a gold-haired man wearing light armour.

"Uh... You mean the QuestStone cleaning one?" asked Mei, taking out her rags to wipe her sweat. Those rags were turning out to be a lot more useful than she expected.

"You must be new to the Greylands, aren't you?" asked the man.

"I guess..." said Mei meekly.

"As expected. You probably don't know this, but that quest's a total scam!" said the man. "You'll need to use polish, I mean... the liquid stuff for the stone to consider the quest complete! But here's the problem: a bottle of polish costs exactly five hundred gold!"

"Ah!" Mei was shocked.

"To be fair, there will probably be some left over afterwards, but it's completely useless! All it does is to make stuff shinier!" the man started to look agitated, gesturing haphazardly. "Like... what the heck is the point of that? What a freaking scam!"

Mei assumed the man had fallen for the same trick once before from his reaction.

"Oh... I see," she said.

She agreed that it wasn't that useful. Mei assumed it was probably just a luxury item for people who had too much gold to spare.

"So as you can see, the quest is totally not worth it!" the man said solemnly.

"Uh-huh." Mei agreed. "But to be honest, I think I'll still finish the quest."

"What? Why?" the man was surprised.

"It's like you know... when you start something and get so far, it seems like kind of a pity to stop halfway?" Mei said in an uncertain tone.

"I see." the man nodded.

He paused.

"If it's not too much trouble, I can lead you to the item shop to right away."

"Um..." muttered Mei. "I don't actually have enough gold..."

"Wait, what?" the man was incredulous. How could a person decked with such fancy equipment not even possess five hundred gold?

He paused for a second, using Scan on the girl... Level one?! How can she be level one with such fancy equips- The man had a realisation.

She must be one of those pay-to-win players! Why she didn't buy a little more gold after getting enough to buy a little more was beyond him. But this was good! At level one, she must be looking for a party. And with partying comes friendship! And with friendship comes benefits (aka free stuff)! He didn't believe a person who paid cash on the first day of playing the game wouldn't spend more later on. The man laughed at his 'ingenious' plan inwardly.

"I can buy the polish for you. You can return the money after finishing the quest." said the man with a poker face.

"Sorry to impose." apologised Mei who was unaware of the man's plans.

"Ah, no worries." said the man.

It didn't take long for them to reach the item shop. As many people would buy items after returning from successful quests with full pockets, the item shop was built near the gates for convenience.

It was a shop around three stories built with wood and granite, with twin glass doors serving as the entrance. The door opened with the ding of a bell as Mei and the man entered. Cold air brushed their skin, to Mei's delight. She would have sighed in content if not for being self-conscious.

There were many shelves lining the carpeted walls in the shop, displaying many assortments of bottles filled with liquids of miscellaneous colours. The shop was lit by dozens of chandeliers with glowing magical ice crystals, cooling and lighting the place at the same time.

Mei didn't say a word, but she found the place much to her liking. She didn't hesitate to gawk at the royal designs of the walls, shelves and the bizarre colours in the bottles. The man who was watching at the side paused from time to time to wait for Mei stare at everything. It was probably for the best that she didn't notice how he had to stop every now and then to wait for her. She would have been very embarrassed if she knew. But slowly, they neared their destination.

"The polish is sold at the counter." said the man as they approached the aforementioned place. "Oh, speak of the devil! There's my sister!" (Mei wasn't sure if the idiom was supposed to be used that way but decided not to comment.)

A gruff looking bearded man behind the counter was arguing with a girl with shiny green hair in simple robes. There were six bottles of liquid clear as water on the counter.

"Oh, if it isn't Alzeth!" said the cashier who had already spotted the man from a distance. "Finally got a girlfriend?"

The green haired girl frowned upon hearing the cashier. Mei hastily shook her head, slightly flustered.

"Enough of your jokes, Harbert. She was tricked into polishing the touchstone but doesn't like to leave tasks unfinished so she's here to buy polish."

"Oho. The last time someone decided to buy polish was months ago. Good thing polish never spoils! I guess you could say that the stuff's so unpleasant, even the mould doesn't want it. AHAHAHAHAHAA!" the laughed Harbert.

None of the three who were listening found the joke funny. The cashier coughed awkwardly.

"Anyway," said Harbert. "Convince your sister here that I can't lower the price any further. I'll get into trouble with the boss, you see?"

"Fine!" grumbled the green haired girl. She didn't feel like arguing with her brother.

With reluctance, she dropped sixty gold coins messily onto the counter. Harbert swiped the money off the counter into a box with glee as the girl placed the bottles into her inventory. After stuffing the crate back under the counter, Harbert took out another bottle of clear liquid from a nearby shelf, this one labelled with 'POLISH'. He unscrewed the cap for a second to proof the stuff was what it was. Mei wrinkled her face from the repulsive smell.

"Now, this strong stuff here is as the label says, polish. It'll make anything SHINE like a gem instantly!" said the man with a smile.

A brown bag covered in budges from the ridges of coins materialised in Alzeth's hand.

"Here's the payment." he tossed it to the Harbert.

"Hoho. Paying up for a girl you've just met?" smirked Harbert.

"Nah, she's returning me the money afterwards." Alzeth ignored Harbert's implication. "Let's go."

The trio headed off as Harbert waved them goodbye. As she exited the cold air of the shop and out into the warmer air, Mei felt a sense of regret. If only there was a setting to make the whole game 'air-conditioned'! Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand patting her shoulder.

"By the way," asked Alzeth. "Do you need a party?"

Mei was pleasantly surprised. Right now she wasn't too strong. A party was exactly what she needed!

"Yeah, that would be nice." she smiled.

"Let us welcome our third party member!" shouted Alzeth as he punched the air dramatically.

"Yayyyy..." said his sister sarcastically.