9:33am, January 24

“I came out here today to buy bomb ingredients, not hair decorations.”

Elin crouched in front of a street cart eyeing various bows and clips.

“There’s more to life than explosives, Pao.” Elin picked up a clip with a feather on it and held it in front of me. “I think this'll look good on you.”

“I don’t know why you have such an obsession with wasting soler.”

Elin shook her head sadly. “One day you’re going to wake up and realize you wasted all your youth blowing things up.”

“We don’t age here though.”

“Not physically at least.” Elin put the clip back on the cart. “Depending on how long this goes on I might’ve lived a life as long as mom’s when I go back.”

“Might as well start calling you grandma, to get you acclimated.”

Elin scoffed. “Don’t you dare.”

We kept walking down the avenue, flanked on both sides by light crowds and street vendors. The town used to be the most active during the morning, but business had been slow and crowds sparse ever since the second week. It was as if even the npcs were still subdued, as less shouts and greetings filled the atmosphere.

“The town still hasn’t recovered, has it.” I asked.

Elin frowned as she looked around. “How could it? We’ve lost almost three quarters of Paelgard already. I’d be surprised to find someone who has recovered.”

In an alley a few npc children pointed at us and ducked away instantly. I nodded towards the street where they had stood.

“I didn’t think it would affect them so much though.”

Elin smiled mirthlessly. “You really need to get out and talk to more of them. They’re smarter than you’d think.”

“What do you mean by…”

A cry of anguish reached our ears as we walked down the avenue, causing us to stop and look around for it. I looked at Elin and matched her nod. A morning quest always helped take your mind off things.

We marched off towards the source of the sound, eventually finding it in the crying form of a little girl. In her hands a huge stuffed animal in the shape of a wolf rested, a massive rip leaving it shorn in two. A pile of stuffing lay ruined in a puddle under her. Elin was the first to approach.

“What’s wrong? Did you rip your doggie?”

The girl looked up at Elin, tears in her eyes, and let out a sob.

“He… He’s ruined! I broke him!”

“If you let me see him I’m sure I can fix him.” Elin soothed the girl.

“Rea… Really?”

“Really.”

The girl handed Elin the stuffed animal and she stood up to check its requirements. She frowned and turned to me, tapping on the window to make it visible for me.

Repair: Stuffed Animal

Requirement: Sewing Tools

Required Skills: Sewing 12

Materials: Wolf Cotton Bundle x 4

“Wolf cotten?” I opened the manual as Elin gave the animal back to the girl. I typed the material into my ‘Known Materials’ list and thankfully it popped up with its source.

Elin told the girl to wait for a while and came back to me.

“We get it from the snow wolves just out of town.” She said.

“We should just buy it.” I said. “Just to get it out of the way.”

Elin put on a pained smile. “Players do sell it, but they really gouge you on it.”

I looked around at the vendors around us until I found a player-owned fabric cart conveniently placed nearby. The merchant there had apparently watched the whole situation unfold, and was staring right at us. A small board hung down from his cart, and I could see some roughly scratched letters on it. Wolf Cot. 7 Soler.

“The hell.” I said in shock. “That’s extortion.”

The merchant took out a bundle of cotton and waved it around, apparently trying to sway us.

“Screw that.” I said. “Let’s just hunt the wolves ourselves.”

“Agreed.”

…

I pushed the wolf away and jumped back, making some room between me and the pack. They were thick, fluffy wolves, but aggressive all the same. We hadn’t even noticed them until they were right on top of us owing to their white coat. Now we were surrounded by four of them with a cliff to our backs.

Elin stood behind me, muttering various incantations. It wasn’t necessary to say the names of the spells she was casting, but Elin still wasn’t used to the eye movement selection system. It did add to the atmosphere in any case. From behind me a burst of bronze notes shot past me to slam into the rightmost wolf, causing it to yelp and back a little farther away.

Elin’s only fighting skill was Combat Magic, which worked a little differently from the others. For instead of a fairly small amount of skills to choose from mages just received a spell point each level. These spell points could be put into any one of the six elemental trees, those being Fire, Ice, Lightning, Ethereal, Mythical, and Poison. Each had different spells and was better at different things, but the very first spell in each tree was expensive in spell points to learn. That meant almost every mage specialized in a certain element. Elin had chosen Mythical for its specialized healing and summoning spell trees, though she hadn’t learned any of the summoning spells yet due to her low level.

I charged at the weakened wolf and stabbed it without activating a sword ability before jumping back to protect Elin again. Using an ability would’ve shot me with a certain amount of momentum, and I didn’t want to give the other wolves a chance to attack my vulnerable partner.

The other three attacked me as I came back, and I did my best to block them from getting further past, even if that resulted in getting hit myself. After repelling the first two the third latched onto me, continuously leeching health. This encouraged the fourth, more wounded wolf to come bite my right leg, locking me in place.

“Elin?!” I shouted.

“Got it!” She shouted. “[Recite]!”

Another burst of notes slammed into the wounded wolf, finally finishing it off. Then Elin’s gauntleted fist slammed into the other wolf on my arm, startling both me and the wolf. Recovering quickly, I performed a quick slash on the yelping wolf, my sword glowing red.

I took a deep breath as it darted back to be with the other two surviving wolves. They had taken almost fifty percent of my health away with their repeated maneuvers, and I was beginning to feel the fatigue from my injuries. I pointed my sword at my foes to ward them off for a time.

Suddenly a wave of bronze rolled over me, and I felt the fatigue slip away as my health filled back up to seventy percent.

“Be careful, half of that’s fake.” Elin warned.

I nodded. The mythical element had a lot of effects dealing with ‘fake healing’ or ‘fake damage’, which only appeared to deal damage or to heal you. This was useful for more than just deception however, for the fake healing would get rid of the fatigue you would feel when heavily damaged. Fake damage would do the opposite, and cause a target to feel more damaged then they really were, causing them to move more sluggishly and slowly.

With the odds a bit more in our favour I ran in, unleashing sword skills and throwing bombs at isolated targets. Elin joined in with her attack spell and her gauntlets when they got close, and the battle was over just a few minutes later. Elin sent a quick heal over towards me before moving over to the sacks left behind by the wolves.

“You’re always way too reckless.” She commented

I shrugged. “They’re only wolves.”

I sat on the ground and drank a healing potion while Elin collected the wool, all the while shaking her head. After she was done she opened her inventory and sighed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It takes eight pelts to make a bundle. We’ll have to fight a few more groups.”

I leaned my head against the tree behind me and groaned. It’s times like this that remind you it’s a game.

…

Some few hours later we stood back in front of the little girl, covered in scratches and sporting one major injury from when Elin had gone down after a particularly powerful blow. We took the doll from the girl, our eyes devoid of emotion, and Elin repaired it using her sewing needle. All four bundles, each the size of my head, disappeared into Elin’s needle as she threaded it across the stuffed animal. Then we handed it back and she went back inside after squeaking out a quick thanks.

At the corner of my screen a few small words popped up, the only hint of the exp reward we had gotten.

One-Handed Lvl Up: 15

Alchemy Lvl Up: 11

Stealth Lvl Up: 17

Behind us the merchant sat in his stall with his hand on his head. He waved at us as we walked by, and Elin had to pull me away.

“I still need to get alchemy ingredients. Elin.” I said depressingly as we walked back to Elin’s tavern. “Tomorrow I guess.”

When we opened the door to the tavern Regen was sitting behind the desk reading a book. When he saw us his eyes widened.

“I thought you two were just going shopping! What happened?”

Elin stared at the wall behind him, her eyes unfocused.

“We repaired a doll.”

Regen opened his mouth to say more, but I stopped him.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

He nodded and helped us up the stairs to our shared room above Elin’s tavern. I jumped into mine, not even bothering to remove my equipment and immediately I drifted off to sleep, where I dreamed of counting wolf-sheep