“HAHAHA! I can’t believe you sold your private capsule! Talk about regret!”

Gii sat at a table in a lively bar. There were players and NPCs all mingled together and sitting across from the table making fun of him was Ralph. Gii didn’t mind, he had forgotten how much he liked the lively conversation that this person brought. The two of them had been chatting for a good while now, catching up on everything they had missed over the last month, although for Gii it was 10 years. He simply answered vaguely if he couldnt remember the details.

“Still i’m surprised you changed to an elf, weren’t you saying they have a tough starting position because they are so far south? I’m sure you wanted to try a human mage last I heard from you?”

Ralph turned his head and pondered quizzically. Gii had forgotten his thought process from so long ago, but he did vaguely remember thinking about focusing on magic.

“You’re right I may have thought that in the past, but plans change. I got inspired to do some roleplaying if i’m being honest.”

“Roleplaying?”

Gii leaned in and motioned Ralph to lean closer as well so he could speak softly to him.

“I intend to play an evil character.”

Ralph looked surprised then motioned to grab at the axe on his hip. He suddenly displayed a serious expression and said.

“What evil deed are you planning?”

Gii was genuinely surprised and for a moment his heart leapt into his throat. However after a brief pause with only the chatter of the bar around them, Ralph could no longer hold the serious face.

“BWAHAHA! You actually were fooled for a second! C’mon man, you know I don't really care about that! However you want to enjoy the game is fine by me! I’m basically half a roleplayer myself you know!”

He took a big swig of the ale flagon in front of him and then licked his lips in response.

“Though I guess it might be difficult to meet with you in a city like this if you become a wanted criminal or something.”

Gii took a sip of his flagon as well and then spoke.

“You’re right, but don’t worry, I don't plan for that to happen for a while yet.”

“Good Good, we just got to meet up again after all.”

Gii smiled and agreed with him. Ralph gulped down the rest of the ale and then slammed the flagon on the table. He motioned for the waitress to bring another flagon and spoke again.

“So what's this about a proposition then?”

Gii had a look of surprise before he laughed at himself. He had been so enthralled while catching up with his old friend that he had nearly forgotten the reason he contacted him in the first place.

“Right! Actually…”

Gii looked around a bit to make sure no one was listening

“I learned some really good info recently, it's another reason I wanted to come back. I know it's something you would be interested in.”

Ralph perked up and leaned in closer as well.

“Oh really? This must be something great indeed, Go on, hit me with it.”

Gii smiled at how much he missed the forthrightness of Ralph.

“I’ve confirmed that there are npcs you can exchange items with. They will give you characteristic scrolls in exchange for certain items.”

Ralph nearly spit out the fresh ale he had just taken a swig of. He wiped his beard and then tried to calm himself as he leaned in to their conversation. Although Ralph was a casual player, he was still playing a game. Which player wouldn't be excited at the opportunity to improve their characters stats?

“R-Really?!”

Gii nodded in confirmation

“Yep, it's tricky because there are multiple NPC’s to trade with and there are a lot of items required. Not to mention the NPC’s are all over the place.”

“Still, if it’s true, that's huge news!”

“It is, but I don't expect it to stay secret for long. I think at most we have a month before someone would post something on the forums. If we have bad luck it would be within the first week or two.”

Ralph thought about it for a bit and then nodded in agreement.

“You’re right, the earliest people to learn about it would benefit the most, but after a certain point someone is going to spill the beans.”

“Right, I agree! That’s where my proposition comes in. I’ll be traveling to register at the gate locations and I dont have alot of money to buy the items. So i’d like you to buy the items needed to trade, and then i'll run to the NPCs”

“Here, I’ll send you a list of the items needed and the quantity needed.”

Ralph looked at the chat notification he had received and the massive list of items. He pondered for a minute and thought things over before responding.

“That is a hell of a lot of items...I probably have the funds if I operate at a loss…”

Ralph seemed to be thinking things through as Gii sat nervously waiting for his response. Suddenly Ralph seemed to give up and slapped the table.

“Alright whatever, this is honestly too good of a deal to pass up!”

Ralph suddenly grabbed Gii’s hand and shook it violently.

“I’m guessing you want to max every stat, but i’ll only need to max like 3 or 4. I’ll buy as many of these items as i can before the prices start to skyrocket.”

Gii freed his hand from Ralphs and tried to shake the numbness out of it.

“Great! Don’t worry about attracting attention, if anyone asks just tell them you are learning alchemy on the side or something.”

Ralph nodded and then took another big swig out of his flagon and the two chatted for a while more before they reluctantly parted.

After leaving his meeting with Ralph, Gii headed toward a small building just off of the main road. It was a pale blue and was squashed between 2 larger buildings. The door out front said “open for business” and a sign hung next to it that said “Sufokia Courier Service”. Gii made his way inside and was greeted by a warm but cramped interior with a desk that had a sleeping receptionist behind it.

Gii knocked on the table and the elf behind the desk awoke with a fright.

“W-What? Oh!”

*Ahem*

“Good afternoon, how can I help you today?”

Gii put the letter he was carrying on the desk and spoke.

“I was tasked by a man named Darrius with delivering this letter, can you verify it for me?”

“Darrius?”

The man picked up the letter and inspected it. He opened it after a moment and started reading over the letter. After a couple of minutes he folded the letter and put it into his breast pocket and then smiled and extended his hand to Gii.

“It looks like you are our newest member! You passed this test with flying colors, what is your name?”

“I didn’t even realize I was being tested, my name is Gii.”

As he shook his hand, a notification window popped up in front of Gii

You have completed the Quest “A Courier’s Pride”

You have gained:

1x Courier Swift Boots

Ð1500

Title: Courier

“You have now officially passed the initiation for the Sufokia Courier Service. You can get a part of the uniform now but don’t expect to earn your stripes right away!”

“My name is Fersian and I manage this branch in Amaknanta. Even though it's a big city, we haven't established ourselves here for long. It will be up to people like you to build our reputation.”

Gii listened to him as he explained the procedures and how Gii would now be able to accept courier missions to different areas. Longer and more dangerous trips paid better but Gii didn’t pay too close attention. He didn’t really plan to continue with Courier quests outside of using them to gain the rewards he just received and earn some money while registering the gates.

He listened patiently before taking a few of the more long distance delivery requests and then headed to the exit of the city.

***

Gii was currently on his 4th in-game day of travel and it was already the next day in the real world. He had traveled and registered 3 other gates in the Amaknanta Kingdom before logging out and getting some sleep. At this time he had made his way into the Duchy of Astrub and was currently on his way to it’s capital city of Incarnum.

There were a number of reasons to be excited about the Duchy of Astrub. First of all, this was the only starting location in the Beta so it was extremely familiar to him. It was also the place with the best hunting grounds for low level tier 1 characters. The third and most important reason for Gii was…

I can desecrate the second altar.

Gii’s plan was to obtain a specific secret class. For secret or rare classes, you often had to meet a very particular set of criteria before you would be awarded with one.

For the class Gii was aiming for, one of the criteria was for the player to become a Lesser Demon. This race is not something available to start with and can only be obtained when you meet the afterlife guardian in Hell with the criteria needed fulfilled. One of those was to have -3000 karma and another was to be under level 10. Both were easy to achieve separately, but when trying to achieve them together it became exponentially more difficult.

Obtaining -3000 karma without accruing enough experience to level up beyond level 10 was the main reason it was so difficult. That’s why Gii focused on the quickest way to accumulate negative karma, desecrating the altars of worship for good deities.

However, that was much easier said than done. Most of the altars in question were located in temples and churches and were surrounded by high level Clerics and Paladins. In order to accumulate 3000 negative karma Gii would need to defile at least 5 altars. After much research he was able to narrow down the candidates to 10 altar locations and 3 of them would be located along the way if he were to travel north from Sufokia while registering the gates.

Gii entered into the city of Incarnum and made his way to the gate to register it. Then he pulled up his chat log and sent a message to Arden.

[Gii: I’m in Astrub now]

[OnyxVeteran: oh you made it here that quickly? Hang on a minute]

[OnyxVeteran: we are finishing up some hunting, did you want to join us then set off?]

[Gii: I actually have some business to take care of in Astrub, how about I message you when i’m done and we can arrange a place to meet up?]

[OnyxVeteran: What? Is it some quest??]

[Gii: secret]

[OnyxVeteran: stingy]

[Gii: I’ll let you know when i’m done, it shouldn’t take too long]

[OnyxVeteran: fine]

Gii closed his chat window and continued into the city. As expected for the most common starting area, it was packed with players. Not to say that the other cities Gii had come through were not filled with players, but Incarnum was just exploding with players. Some of them were wearing shiny new armor or waiving around expensive looking staffs. Player shops were set up outside the NPC shops hawking their wares, it was a lively sight.

Gii weaved his way through the streets until he came upon a small stone temple. On the front of the temple was the holy symbol for Crassius and the evening masses were just leaving the building after a prayer session. Gii staked the building out for a bit to make sure all of the people left the building.

Good, it's just like I thought. There are no high level paladins.