Suara strolled down a cobblestone road. She smiled at the fact that no one paid any attention to her. She explored her personal menus as she walked, looking through settings, which bored her quickly, her character sheet which still had a blinking “4” telling her to spend her unused skill points—she had no idea how—and her bag.

The bag interested her the most. It had a few pockets. One for inventory, where her item cards would be kept, a key card pouch for Key Items which was empty, and her cards. She had one deck, and Sword of the Stranger was the only card in it.

She was excited to fill her bag up with every fun thing she could find.

The road led from the Spawning Square, a very popular spot for player shops, to wherever she was now. Another square called the Resting Place, according to a sign looming over her as she entered. It was very busy, with crowds of people bumping into each other as they came and went through the inns lining the surrounding streets. An enormous tree grew out of the fountain in the middle.

The largest building in the Resting Place had a lacquered wood sign in front of it advertising some of the services of the Adventurer's Guild. She thought it would be boring to read so she didn’t, and walked through the open door to ask someone inside.

A shockingly curvy woman nodded to her from a desk in the centre of the room. Everyone else ignored her. The left side was packed tightly with round tables and every one of them was full of people eating and drinking. The smell of roast meat tried to distract her but she shook her head and kept focused.

“Hello,” she said to the receptionist.

“Greetings, adven—wait, you’re not registered, are you?” she frowned. “Let me get that for you. Hold out your hand please.” She tapped the desk.

Suara placed her right hand on the desk while the receptionist dug around for something. When she looked up, an annoyed look crossed her face.

“The other hand,” she sighed.

Suara was beginning to get a little annoyed herself. She placed her gloved hand on the desk, and the woman stamped the back of her glove, leaving a flowery red mark.

“I just want to know what there is to do around here,” she explained.

“Well Suara Kurisol, now that you’re registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, you can take on quests. That’s what most people do in Wreathmill.” The receptionist pointed to the right side of the room, at a large board covering most of the wall. It was completely covered in papers.

“How?”

She rolled her eyes. “The left side of the board are the beginner ones. Since you’re a beginner who is clearly in need of some direction, I’ll give you some extra tips. Registering here does more than allow you to accept our quests; you also get a handy map of Wreathmill and surrounding areas. If you need to rest, you can stay at any of the inns nearby to recover some HP. And since you have to visit an inn to finish levelling up, they can’t even charge you! Well, not unless you want a room with a private bath. Oh, last thing before you go. There’s an item for you.” The receptionist placed a shiny purple card with a pink stripe on the desk. “This is your promotional item. If you’re ever set to receive any promotions, you can pick them up from me, or any pet with the Mail skill.”

“A promotional card? Thank you!” Suara clapped her hands together. Now she was having fun. She knew the name of the city, she knew there were pets to collect… It was a good start.

She picked up the card. There was a picture of a shining rose-gold ring on it.

“Huh,” she said. She considered asking whether it was a good card, but thought better of it. It seemed this woman was only going to get more annoyed the more questions she asked. It was a shame; she had many more. But… it couldn’t be too hard to figure it out herself, right?

The card flashed, and the ring appeared on the index finger of her right hand. Oh!, she thought. Rings weren’t battle cards, apparently. They were equipment.

She waved to the receptionist.

The right side of the room was packed with people. Most weren’t staring at the quest board, but rather hovered around the service desks. By the exchanges taking place, she assumed that at least some of the rewards were collected here. She squeezed through the throngs of people to the ‘beginner’ side of the board. She chose one at random.

Beginner Quest

Task

Slay 6 Giant Rats

Reward

20 Gold / 20 EXP

Location

Jail Cellar

She shook her head. Boring. She scanned the reward boxes until she saw one she liked.

Beginner Quest

Task

Deliver 10x Wheat

Reward

10x [u]Fluffy Pastry Card

Locaction

Accariam Royal Bakery

Much better. She needed the cards. There was a line of tickets along the bottom of the posting. Suara tore one off, and ~QUEST ACCEPTED~ appeared in front of her. She nodded, satisfied that she was making progress.

She wanted to open her map, and assumed it would be in her Key Items, but the moment she thought about it it appeared before her. She stepped back from surprise and nearly got knocked over as she bumped into a giant elf with bulging muscles and bounced off him.

Better to do it outside. After squeezing back through all the people, she was beginning to feel a little exhausted by the crowds. She left the Resting Place plaza the way she came and turned left, because she saw water that way. Her gold piece total popped up in the corner of her vision, reading 0. She frowned at it. Was the game teasing her for not having gold?

It kept popping up every minute or so as she walked, and she kept ignoring it. The end of the street overlooked a massive lake. Couples lined the bank, lounging on blankets and picnicking. The low mountain range on the other side was reflected in the still water. She watched the lake for a little while, breathing the cool fresh air and wondering what adventures lay beyond those mountains.

Could players even go out there?

The sooner she finished her deck of cards the sooner she would be ready to find out. She walked to the closest inn, a tiny building compared to the others. It was old judging by the smooth, cracked bricks, and abundance of weeds and ivy. Spots of dirt in the grass marked where a sign used to be.

She stepped inside. It was a cozy room with a plush seat for two in front of a hearth. Two tables flanked a red rug on the other side, but no one was sitting there. There was no smell of food, just a bit of a musty odour. A woman popped her head out of the back room.

“Can I help you?” she asked, tilting her head. She was a human with brown hair. Her apron was clean.

“Is this an inn?” Suara asked. “I have skill points to use up and I would like a quiet place to look over my map.”

“It is,” the woman said, sounding abashed. “We don’t… we don’t really get visitors though.”

“Why? Do you not want any?”

The lady sighed. “We can’t charge anything for a basic room, so why would anyone come to a run-down place like this when there are luxurious rooms for free down the road? Across the street, even.”

Suara nodded. “The inns next door are very nice,” she admitted.

“Well, there you go.” She looked somewhat sad. She was an NPC, Suara could tell by the green ring around her feet when she focused on her, but that just meant her purpose was to run an inn. Of course she would be sad if no one liked it.

“I like this inn,” Suara declared. “It’s cozy and you can see the water.”

She stared at Suara thoughtfully before speaking. “There are nicer inns you can see the water from…”

Suara was happy to see a hint of cheer come over the woman’s face, even if she was trying to hide it. “I like this one,” she repeated. “What is it called?”

The innkeeper couldn’t hide her smile now. “It’s called the Winged Rabbit, after my favourite monster. I… the sign collapsed, so I’ve had to commission a new one.”

Suara clapped her hands together with excitement. “They have winged bunnies?”

The woman nodded. “If you really want to stay here, I’ll let you take the nicer room, with the bath. We only ever rent it about once a week at best anyway. Consider it yours as long as you’d like.”

“Oh!” Suara returned the innkeeper's grin. “Are you allowed to do that? I thought the game was just designed so you had to pay for nicer rooms?”

“…What?”

“Oh sorry, nevermind. I’ll take the room, thank you.” It was nice to know NPCs were just like real people, even to the point of being able to offer discounts. Maybe she could make some helpful friends if she made herself useful.

The innkeeper enthusiastically led her upstairs. There were only three rooms, and the nicer one was just where Suara hoped it would be. East-facing. A wide window with red curtains overlooked the lake. The room itself was cozy as she expected, with a large, soft bed that made her feel weightless when she tested it. There was a desk, a wardrobe for changing her outfits—once she had any—and of course, her own washroom.

It was very small; the bed took up the majority of the room, and none of it was very fancy, but it was clean and well maintained. She made a mental note to help the innkeeper any way she could to earn the room as long as she was going to use it. She expected it to be awhile; she liked it a lot.

“My name is Aurea,” the innkeeper said. “Thank you for choosing the Winged Rabbit.” She left two cards on the desk and closed the door as she left.

Suara eyed the cards. She wanted to remain focused, though, so she opened her character sheet to look at her skill points. There was an option to distribute them now.

She had four from levelling up, but a fifth had appeared from the ring she equipped. She put one in DEX, because the 9 was irritatingly uneven, and two each in VIT and CHA to bring them up to 15. The extra VIT raised her HP and DEF. She nodded happily at the screen before closing it.

She had no idea what she was doing, but she was enjoying herself.

The cards left by Aurea were a Room Key, a Key Item that allowed her singular access to the room. The other was something for her actual deck.

It was a Summon card. She beamed at it, and tapped it to her glove. It turned into light and her glove absorbed it, adding it to her active deck. She was thrilled by the progress she was making. Enough that she felt it was time to relax and take a nap. She lay on the bed, and let it cradle her like a plush cloud.