I awoke to the sound of children playing, light coming through the single window of the inn’s room. I could smell the morning dew, calling to my inner elf. Or it could be that it hinted of something that reminded me of Conall. I wasn’t entirely sure, nor did I want to dwell on it too much. Could this be a side effect of not being able to log out? I really hoped that I wasn’t starting to turn out to be like those gaming nerds that always lusted after NPCs rather than an actual girl.

Putting my thoughts to the back of my mind, I sat up in the bed and wiped the sleep away from my eyes. I was on a mission to get to level 10 today, and while I wanted nothing but to go back to sleep, I had to get up and get the day started. If only the Veil had coffee.

Rising off of the bed, I grabbed the belt that held my new daggers. I was actually looking forward to using them today to see how much I progressed. I almost debated on going back into the mines today, but I remembered the last time I tried that and shuddered, throwing that idea out of the window immediately. Since dungeons scaled to the players level, to a maximum of whatever level the dungeon was, it would be just as hard as it was when I originally went in there, and I did not want to have a rusted sword slash into me, or get eaten by rats again, or beheaded. Seriously, why in the hell was I dying so much?

Equipping my cloak, I walked out of the room and went downstairs to see if Isbeil and anything for me, or any rumors that I might investigate. As I walked down the steps, Isbeil looked over at me and waved me over. It looked as if I wouldn’t even need to ask.

“Raven dear, I have a message for you from Mayor Eacharn. He told me to tell you that he heard about what happened in the tavern last night and would like to speak with you about something,” she informed me with a hint of disapproval in her expression.

Shaking her head, she decided to add that he was a good man, and I shouldn’t try to make him “stray from the path,” whatever that meant. Feeling that I should go meet the mayor as soon as possible, I made a snide comment about how I would most definitely use my feminine wiles on him and left as something hit the wall next to me.

Laughing to myself, I walked to the square and instead of making a left to go down the market street, I went to the path that laid in front of me that lead to the larger house that looked just as big as the inn. Unless it belonged to a trader that was richer than the entire town combined, I assumed it was the house that the mayor resided in.

I saw more and more guards the closer I came to the mansion, and they weren’t just standing around. No, it looked as if they were on a mission as they hurried to wherever they were going. I had a hope that was rapidly diminishing that this wasn’t going to be a long day.

I arrived at the mansion and saw a tall dark elf with fiery red hair and ashen eyes, his brown clothing much more regal than the others that surrounded him. He looked as if he was trying to calm them down, concern covering his face. Whatever he needed from me couldn’t be good, and I had a sneaking suspicion that he didn’t request me so that I could gather some herbs from outside of the village. He looked up from talking with one of the people talking to him and he saw me standing at the entrance, in the foyer of the mansion, my arms crossed over my chest as I waited for him to finish.

“Ah, Raven,” he shouted after excusing himself from the other dark elves around him. “Thank you for coming to meet with me. Please, follow me into the library and we can talk about why I wanted to meet with you.”

I followed him deeper into the mansion and saw a few servants walking around. It didn’t look like they were here involuntarily or anything, so I decided that he might not be someone that I would be killing any time soon. In fact, it looked like that mansion itself was well maintained and the servants looked like they took pride in what they did for him.

We arrived at the library which was fairly large, considering that this was just a village in the middle of the mountains. When he mentioned a library, I just assumed it would be about the size of my room at the inn, but it was much larger than that, books filling the shelves.

“Please, sit. Would you like anything to drink? Water perhaps,” he asked while smiling at me.

“Water would be fine, although, I have to ask, why did you call me here Mayor,” I asked, wanting to get down to business.

Eacharn looked at me and nodded, as if he was impressed with me. He called out to one of the servants to get us both some water as he sat down on a chair behind a large desk.

“I heard about what happened at Conall’s last night, and while I don’t exactly approve of violence happening in my city, the fact you refrained when asked does speak to your character. Before we go on though, I would ask for your oath that what we speak of here you will not let anyone else know.”

I tried to remember the words that the Dark Elves said when they took oaths of honor, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember exactly what they were. I never really looked into the entire Dark Elf customs on the boards. Why would I need to role-play?

“Um, I swear by my honor that I won’t talk about what we discuss here in this room?”

The mayor looked at me and put his hand on his head, holding the bridge of his nose in between his thumb and his finger.

“You are definitely a Veil-walker. A normal Dark Elf would know the words from the day they are born. Oh well, that’s fine I guess, as long as I have your word. At least Conall says that you can be trusted at least.”

I looked at him and couldn’t figure out if he was trying to insult me or not, so I decided to wait for whatever he would say next. I didn’t quite trust what would come out of my mouth.

“We have a possible issue outside of the village which is causing me… issues that I really don’t need. To the north of the village is an old cemetery that people typically used for their pets. From what people have been saying though is that someone decided to bury their husband there. I’m not entirely sure why she would bury her husband in a graveyard for pets, and I don’t want to know. What I do know though is that ever since she did that, some of the farmers that live outside of the village has had their livestock gone missing, and in one case, he found a half-eaten carcass.”

I narrowed my eyes as he told me this. I really didn’t want to do this quest.

“Could it just be some large predators in the wild that decided for a free lunch,” I asked, knowing what he was going to say.

“No, not at all. A half-eaten cow wouldn’t be mooing in the morning and attacking it’s owner, would it,” he replied, looking at me with a smirk. He knew that I didn’t want to do this quest even though I was going to do it anyways.

“Well, a zombie-cow can still produce milk, can’t it? I don’t see the problem here,” I asked, still hoping that he would ask me to get some herbs for him instead. The look on his face though was as epic as it was priceless.

“I… I… Ok, whatever. I’ll give you two options then. Take the request, find out what is happening and stop it. Or, I’ll give you 10 gold to find out if a zombie-cow can be milked. Now leave, you’re giving me a headache.”

I stood up and walked out of the library, hearing a feint curse about something dealing with Veil-walkers and smiled as I left the mansion. As I got outside, the quest window appeared before me:

Quest: Timberdenn’s Cemetery of Pets

Quest Reward: 250xp, 50 silver

Bonus Reward: 10 gold

———————————————————————————

Quest Objective: Put an end to the evil that is plaguing Timberdenn

———————————————————————————

Bonus Objective: Attempt to milk a zombie-cow. Seriously?

———————————————————————————

Do you wish to accept? (Yes/No)

I hesitated before accepting the quest, reading the bonus reward and objective. It looked like the AI that created quests in the game decided to give me something else that I dreaded based on the conversation between the mayor and myself. If it could be done, it would give me 10 gold which would go a long way with helping me once I got to Kinderfell. Accepting the quest, I walked towards the exit of the village, I apparently had a cow to milk, not too mention saving the town from some zombie plague.

***

It was mid-afternoon when I got to the exit of the village, my morning wasted by the mayor and his ridiculous quest. If the goblins in the mind made me queasy from their smell, I was not looking forward to what zombies would feel, or smell like. I almost regretted accepting the quest at all, but, needs must and all of that, as the saying goes.

I figured the first place I should investigate would be the cemetery, since this was were everything started. There was an overgrown path that lead north out of the village which I followed, glad that my new cloak was dark green, since stealth wouldn’t be as effective in the brush.

The further I walked from the village, the quieter the forest became, which made the hairs on the back of my neck raise. There should be sounds of wildlife at least, but there wasn’t even that. Since it was too quiet, I crouched down and slowed my steps, keeping an eye out for any movement inside of the deep brush that aligned both sides of the path. However, there was nothing but silence.

After what seemed like hours, the path finally came to an end at a large clearing. There were trees, yes, but they were all old and dead. Why they didn’t fall, or why the forest didn’t overtake this area was a mystery. There were also several mounds of dirt with stone markers laying in front of them. This must be the cemetery that everyone buried their pets at. However, even in the clearing, there was nothing but silence. It was as if the entire area was dead. I could feel that there was something here though, and whatever it was, was not good at all. It felt… evil.

I stood up from my crouch and proceeded into the cemetery, careful not to step on the mounds of dirt. I wasn’t exactly superstitious by any means, but with my luck so far, I would be dragged under the ground and eaten by a zombie. I really didn’t want that to happen.

Getting to the center of the cemetery, I looked around and saw a fresh mound of dirt. I walked over to it, and saw that there was writing on the stone marker which said, “Here lies my pet and husband. He was a horrible necromancer and even worse husband. Good riddance.”

“Oh, damn. That’s messed up. Poor guy,” I thought as I read the marker. However, I had a slight suspicion that I knew what was going on. If he was a necromancer, no matter how bad at it he was, he should still have been able to raise the basic forms of skeletons and zombies. If he was level 20 or higher, he would even be able to raise hordes of both skeletons and zombies. Not too mention, if he was somehow raised from the dead, it might be possible that he was a Lich, and the lowest level Lich that I had ever seen was level 25. They were usually level 30.

“Is this really a quest for someone below level 10,” I wondered to myself, not sure if I wanted to go any further on this quest. I was debating on whether or not to quit the quest or not when I saw a small glimmer of movement from in front of me, just enough to be noticed. I crouched down in front of the marker and immediately activated Stealth.

Looking around the stone marker, I still couldn’t see whatever it was that made the movement that I noticed. Hoping that it was just an animal of some sort, I slowly walked towards the brush that I saw it through when the smell hit me. It was the worse thing that I ever smelled, as if something was dead and decaying. Hoping against hope that it wasn’t a zombie, I made my way through the brush while keeping as silent as possible.

There was another small clearing past the brush, and while the brush was thick, it wasn’t that much. In the clearing, I saw a decayed corpse that was dragging some half eaten animal to what looked like an old crypt that was covered in dead moss and fungus. The door of the crypt was broken, it’s rusted metal door laying next to the entrance.

Dragging it’s food, the zombie went into the dark crypt. After letting a few minutes pass to make sure it didn’t sense me and come back, I followed after it, letting the darkness of the crypt swallow me. I let my eyes get accustomed to the darkness and I could make out the outlines of the walls, but nothing more, which I was glad for.

I slowly made my way deeper into the crypt, keeping my Stealth ability active. Now deeper into the crypt, I could hear noises of rotting teeth tearing and chewing into flesh which made my stomach turn. I pulled out my daggers, knowing that if the zombies caught me, they would be feasting on my flesh instead. I was prepared to not let it come to that and was willing to put one of my daggers into my throat before that happened.

I moved ever so slowly towards the sounds of the zombies feasting when I came into a large room that had several rectangular holes in the walls, presumably where the dead were supposed to sleep. I could see 8 zombies on the side in the corner, feeding on the corpse of the dead animal that I saw one of them come in with.

On the other side of the room, however, was a being that radiated evil. It was a skeleton with decayed flesh hanging off of it’s bones, sitting on a chair that was made of stone, sleek from the humidity and who knows what else. The smell inside of the room forced me to break my invisibility as I hurled the contents from my stomach, and then some.

The zombies all stopped feeding and raised to their feet, looking at me with unrelenting hunger in their eyes. I raised my dagger to my throat, when I heard a voice call out,

“Halt,” the voice said, hoarse as if it’s throat was raw.

The zombies stopped moving, and I looked at the being that was now standing in front of the chair, looking at me with curious hunger. My hand shook, causing my dagger to draw a small amount of blood from my neck. I was still much more prepared to end my life than become food for these… things.

“Veil-walker, why have you come here? Did Sereinne send you to kill me, yet again?,” the being said, it’s voice reverberating on the walls, grating my ears.

The Lich, which I knew this thing to be, walked slowly towards me while I found my voice.

“I don’t know Sereinne, I came here to investigate what was going on with the farms and to stop it,” I replied, still afraid as to what my fate would become.

It stopped and tilted it’s head, as if it was thinking. “I see. Bring me Sereinne alive, and I will have no need to have my horde search for her. They have failed in their task so far, only bringing corpses of animals and cows and not my ex-wife. If you are able, I will have no more need of these wretched creatures that are incapable of actual thought.”

I could only nod, the cold iron of my dagger cutting further into my neck, enough to start bleeding a bit more heavily.

“Good, now begone with you, before my zombies decide to eat something with a little bit more of a fight to them,” he said, gurgling as if he was trying to laugh.

I rose to my feet, ready to run out of the crypt before thinking about the quest. “Before I go, I need to ask you something Lich. Can a zombie-cow be milked?”

The Lich rose one of it’s decayed eyebrows and had a look of confusion cloud the features it still had, which turned to anger as it pointed towards the exit of the room.

I turned around and started running out of the crypt as fast I could while hearing some mumbling about Veil-walkers and their idiotic thoughts, which I started to agree with. I couldn’t believe the quest actually gave me this stupid bonus objective, not too mention that it wasn’t even a damn kill quest but an escort mission.

Coming into the clearing once again. The smell of the rotting crypt cleared out of my system which I was grateful for. It was now time to find the Lich’s ex-wife and escort her back to the crypt.

I made my way back to the town at a fast jog, not wanting to spend any more time on this quest than I already had. Slowing myself down to a brisk walk, I neared the entrance of the village. The guards were obviously shaken by the stories they had been hearing, since they looked at me grasping their spears more tightly as I walked towards them.

“Excuse me, guards. I am on a quest from Mayor Eacharn to clear the area of the evil that has spawned. I need to know if you know where a woman by the name of Sereinne lives,” I asked the first guard that I neared.

“Yes, I’ve heard the name before. She lives outside of town on a small plot of land with her sheep,” he replied while summoning the glowing fairy, giving me directions to her place. I thanked the guard and followed the fairy to Sereinne’s place, which only took me five minutes to get to.

I neared the sheep farm, wondering if the zombies have been looking for her at cow farms instead, and how they could have mixed up the two. There was a large house that looked extravagant, telling everyone that past it that the residents were very well off.

I knocked on the door, wondering what I would find, when a woman answered. Her fiery red eyes looked at me in contempt as she asked me who I was and what I was doing here. I didn’t even think to make a plan to try to convince her to come with me, so I had to think of something on the spot.

“Good afternoon miss. My name is, um, Rayne, and I’ve been tasked with asking you about your ex-husband’s treasure chest that he had hidden in the cemetery,” I replied, wondering if she would buy my story or not.

“You don’t look like an accountant, you look like a Rogue. Why should I believe you,” she asked, obviously not believing my story.

“Yes, you are correct, I am a Rogue. I was hired by the accountant to investigate the claim, which I found to be legitimate. The reason he, um, hired me was because I have skills in Lockpicking and Stealth, of course.”

“Congratulations, you have leveled Negotiation to level 2,” the system message rang in my ears. Sweet.

“I see. Well, what do I need to do then? You obviously didn’t bring the treasure with you,” she replied, now believing my story, sort of.

“Yes, well, you see, there is an enchantment on the chest. I was able to unlock it, but the enchantment only allows you to open it.”

“Well, hurry up and show me where it is then. Maybe my failure of a pet… I mean, husband, actually did something worthwhile,” she said as she stepped out of the door, closing it behind her.

“Yes, of course. Please, follow me. Since he was a Necromancer, you must understand that he had it stored inside of a crypt, yes?” I asked, now getting into my portrayed character.

“That’s fine. It’s not like I haven’t been to one before,” she snapped, obviously looking forward to her supposed riches.

I escorted Sereinne to the cemetery where she buried her husband and began to think that this was going pretty well. I still had to try to milk a damn zombie-cow though, but overall, it was as easy as getting some herbs.

We arrived at the crypt, and Sereinne looked into the murky darkness skeptically. “You said my treasure is down here, yes?” she asked.

I nodded that it was and offered to lead her down, which she scoffed at. I didn’t know how her husband put up with her, so I eagerly followed her down to her awaiting doom. I heard a noise behind me and looked around, seeing a zombie slowly walking towards us.

I quickly excused myself, now that I finished my part and escorted her to the crypt and ran back the way we came. I passed the zombie, and thankfully, it didn’t seem interested in me. As I got outside of the crypt, the entrance started to break apart, it’s broken stones covering the it. The quest window appeared in my view again:

Quest: Timberdenn’s Cemetery of Pets

Quest Reward: 250xp, 50 silver

Bonus Reward: 10 gold

————————————————————————————————

Quest Objective: You have discovered the cause of the undead plague and put an end to it by escorting an innocent woman to her undeserved imprisonment by a Lich. Hopefully you are proud of yourself. Now you must let the mayor know that you are a terrible Dark Elf and get your reward.

————————————————————————————————

Bonus Objective: Attempt to milk a zombie-cow. Seriously?

I read the quest information with disbelief. Was this actually the same game? The quests always seemed a bit more dry and not as dynamic, or sarcastic as this one seemed. It almost made me wonder if they had an intern design this quest, which was unlike any of the others that I had done. No use thinking about it though since I had a zombie-cow to milk.

***

I went back to Sereinne’s sheep farm since a cow farm was sure to be close by, and after walking a few minutes down the road, it was sure enough there with a herd of cows grazing inside of a wooden fence. I walked up the path to the house and knocked on the door and was greeted by an elderly gentleman that was wearing green robes.

“Good evening sir, I was wondering if you were the owner of this farm,” I asked as innocently as I possibly could.

“I am the proprietor of this land, yes, but it is my on that runs it. Let me get him,” the old man said, before politely shutting the door in my face. He couldn’t even ask me to come inside, and the dung smell from the farm was starting to get to me.

A few minutes had gone by and I was growing more and more irritable by the second when the door opened again with a disheveled, young Dark Elf was standing inside.

“I’m sorry that you had to wait, my name is K’leth, how can I help you today,” he asked me while looking me up and down. Typical.

“I was ordered by the mayor to investigate the undead plague, and I had heard that there was a cow that was attacked but not killed, turning into a zombie. I’m wondering if you’ve heard of where this cow might be located currently?”

K’leth let out a sigh as he stepped out, closing the door behind him.

“Yes, that beast was attacked in the night. When I came out for the morning milk, I thought it was dead, but when I got closer, it started growling and snapping at me before chasing me into the barn. It’s still there if you’ve come to finally but that ravage thing out of it’s misery,” he said with weary eyes, walking past me towards a path that led to the back of the house.

I followed him until we came to a large barn. It was eerily quite, especially for being on a farm. He pointed towards the barn and let me know that the cow was inside before wishing me luck and leaving me to my own devices.

“I swear, if I get eaten by a cow, I am going to quit this miserable mission,” I groaned to myself as I entered the barn. It was dark, with only a few windows that allowed light in. Stables aligned each side, presumably milking stations. I looked around for the cow, but was not able to see any animals, though the rotting stench was almost unbearable.

As I walked further into the barn, I pulled out my daggers and surveyed each of the stalls as I walked past. I neared the middle of the barn and heard a sound of something rustling, as if standing up, coming from the far side.

Immediately activating Stealth, I stopped and crouched. A cow started walking out of the far right stall, however, it was unlike anything I have ever seen before. The cow, if that is what it could be called, looked as if it was decaying on it’s left side, it’s black lungs could be seen pulsing as it breathed. However, it wasn’t this that startled me. The damn cow was standing, but it was standing on it’s back legs, it’s height easily dwarfing me.

The cow looked around and sniffed. As with all wildlife, it had the uncanny sense to detect me, it’s red eyes looking directly at me.

“GROOOOO,” it yelled, as if it was a mix of a mooing sound and a growl. Suddenly, a halberd magically appeared in it’s… hands? Front legs?

“Oh shit,” I thought to myself as it rushed me faster than I ever could have anticipated. The monster’s halberd was raised above it’s head as if it was going to slice me in half. I suppose there was not going to be any attempts at milking it, even if I survived. This was not something I had ever seen before, so I couldn’t even gauge what it’s strengths and weaknesses were.

I deactivate Stealth and leaped backwards to try to put some distance between myself and the cow. There was no sense in having my movement penalized if it was already aggro’d. I could start to feel my sweat beading down my forehead.

As the halberd swung down, now in position to cleave me in half, I managed to hold up my daggers, crossed, above my head. The halberd’s blade crashed into my daggers and was moved towards my side. Activating Riposte, my blades stabbed into the beast’s stomach, it’s rotted black blood gushing over my hands.

“GROOOOO,” the monster yelled, dropping it’s halberd. It turned to me with hateful eyes, and fell over. Dead.

“What the fuck,” I asked out loud. The quest notification window appeared before me with an update:

Quest: Timberdenn’s Cemetery of Pets

Quest Reward: 250xp, 50 silver

Bonus Reward: Failed.

————————————————————————————————

Quest Objective:You have discovered the cause of the undead plague and put an end to it by escorting an innocent woman to her undeserved imprisonment by a Lich. Hopefully you are proud of yourself. Now you must let the mayor know that you are a terrible Dark Elf and get your reward.

————————————————————————————————

Bonus Objective: You have slain the mighty zombie-cow instead of milking it. You must notify Mayor of your failure.

————————————————————————————————

I stared at the dead cow, baffled at what just happened. This, thing, was the culmination of my fear of being eaten alive? Was this entire quest just out to troll me? I could feel my face getting red with anger. This entire quest was just some bullshit. Yes, I would talk with the mayor, and by talk, I mean scream my lungs out at him.

I walked over to the cow and kneeled beside it, looting it.

Worthless Halberd

Rarity: Rare

Level: 1

Weight: 1

Durability: 0/100

Price: 1c

————————————————————————————————

Only usable by cows that have been turned into zombies

“… ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME,” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I closed the loot window and stood up, stomping out of the barn. I was done, screw this quest.

***

I made my way back to the mayor’s manor, still quite upset about this entire farce. The guards looked at me, wary of the way I slammed the door open and stood in the foyer, my hands ready to pull out my daggers.

“EACHARN! GET OUT HERE,” I yelled. The mayor rushed down the stairs.

“What happened? Are you okay,” he asked, obviously distressed.

I glared at him, wondering if he was really this oblivious. “Are you seriously asking me this? First you send me out to take care of an undead lich, which is way above my pay grade. Then I had escort his ex-wife to his crypt at his request. After that, you had me go kill a freaking zombie-cow that wasn’t even worth my damn time!”

He looked at me with amusement, which only made me angrier, before turning around and coughed into his raised fist that he had over his mouth before turning back around to face my wrath.

“Okay, so if I understand correctly, you were able to stop the undead from killing and harassing the farmers, but you failed in the quest to attempt to milk an undead cow. Do I have that right,” he asked.

“Well, yes, I guess,” I replied. When he put it like that, I guess this entire thing did start with me asking for it. The quest completion window appeared in front of me as a soft glow surrounded me. I waved away the window and gave the mayor the evil eye as he chuckled at me. Shaking my head, I told him to go shove it and stormed out of the mansion before I hit him. I just wanted to go to the tavern and get something to drink and wallow in my misery.

I walked into Conall’s and immediately ordered my usual Rennor Jhinrae. As it was being made, I opened my character stats window and allocated the stat points into the four stats I was building on. Accepting the current stats, I closed the window as my drink was pushed towards me. Unfortunately, Conall wasn’t working, so I grabbed the drink and worked my way to my usual bench in the back.

After sitting down, I pulled up my character skills. The good thing about the quest was that it actually gave me three levels, so now I was level 10. At least that troll of a quest was actually worth some damn good experience. With the cow and the quest turn in, it was worth a total of 280 xp. Now, I had 12 skill points to invest in.

I knew that I wanted at least 1 skill point so that I could immediately invest in Shadow Step once I was able to learn it, so that left me with 11 points. I put 2 points into Stealth, 1 point into Eviscerate, and 2 points into Riposte. Now that I was level 10, I was able to access three new skills:

Assassin’s Mark (Level 1): Marks the assassin's target, increasing all damage to the mark by 5% damage per level.

Hilt Strike (Level 1): Strikes the enemy with the hilt of your weapon which incapacitates the enemy for 2 seconds. Further development in this skill increases the duration of Incapacitate by 5% per level.

Side Step (Level 1): Strafes to the side of the target which allows the Assassin to perform an attack from the target’s side.

Looking at my options, I decided to put the three skill points into Assassin’s Mark, since it wouldn’t be until level 20 until I started getting positional skills that were more geared towards group play. Backstab was okay for a rear positional damage ability, but it didn’t scale as well as some other skills that I would get over time. Assassin’s Mark gives a really great damage boost, so it was one of the signature skills that assassins, no matter if it was solo or in a group.

As I sipped on my wine, my eyes caught sight of a human that was dressed in fairly regal clothing. He was sitting with a few other humans that looked to be mercenaries. While players could hire mercenaries from the Mercenary NPC guild, it was not often done since they could be easily classified as weak, comparatively speaking. “I think I may have found my quest that would lead me to the main city” I thought to myself as I grabbed my beer that the barkeep laid down behind me. Walking to the humans, beer in hand, I gently sat it down on the table, standing in between the chairs that the two mercenaries currently sat down in. The mercenaries looked up at me and squinted, wondering if I was going to make a move against the well off human that obviously hired them.

“Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice that you’re not from around here. Might I ask where you’re heading to, and if you’re looking for some additional help?” I asked, attempting to keep my voice neutral, and not wanting to make a scene with the mercenaries.

The human looked up at me and grinned, obviously excited about having a female dark elf travel with him if he could afford it. “Indeed my lady. I am Trader Bartley, of House Karline. Currently, my companions and I are on our way to the city of Kinderfell to exchange some wares. If you are so inclined, I am sure my compatriots and myself could use the company. It is a long journey, and I am sure that we might come across some bandits on the way. As far as pay, well, I am sure that I could afford 10 gold for the additional help. What do you say, my lady? Will you join us?”

I looked over the quest details as the window appeared before me. It seemed like a standard escort quest, and the level of the quest was level 10, so I accepted the quest and smiled at the human. “I agree to your terms Trader, when will we be leaving,” I asked, hoping that the answer wasn’t immediately as I still had to pick up my daggers and cloak from Moire.[Name the quest and rewards - 10 gold.]

“Tomorrow morning as soon as the sun is overhead. We should arrive at Kinderfell by night fall,” he informed me.

As I completely drained my wine, I bid him and the other mercenaries good night, and promised to meet them by the village entrance tomorrow. I walked back to the counter, empty mug in hand, and laid it down near the bartender. When he looked up at me, I looked at him and smiled, giving him slight nod before walking out of the tavern. I was eager to get back to the inn and call it a night. Whatever it would be, it could not be worse than what I had already experienced, nor could it be worse than knowing the truth about myself, both in this virtual world and in the real world. I could not have been more wrong, though I did not know it.

Keeping to the shadows as was my habit, I made my way to the inn. As I neared the village circle near the inn, I overheard a low voice coming from one of the alleys.

“Yes, we’ll be ready for that caravan, you don’t need to doubt us. Whatever that human has, it will be ours by night’s end. I hope you know that this won’t be cheap. Other than that item, everything else is ours, right,” I heard the voice say, obviously a man. I heard another man give a dark laugh as I heard the pair of footsteps leading further into the alley. I cursed my luck since I couldn’t follow them since I didn’t want to risk getting into a fight without having my equipment. Instead, I silently walked to the door of the inn and entered. Tomorrow would bring a new day and now, seemingly, new enemies.