Finally! I’m back at the village. It looks like all the villagers have now dispersed out and started to move back their supplies and food to their original locations. Seems like they’ve gotten used to this whole situation already. In total, 6 out of the 10 Marauders have died, including their boss (I defeated him!). They are all lined up unceremoniously on the ground at the side of the center. 3 out of the 10 marauders are injured but they’ve already surrendered and are now imprisoned. I’m not sure what’ll happen to them. Oh, I guess I should question one of them about Eseli, since she didn’t bother to say anything about herself during our first conversation. Also, just to better get to know who these Marauders are. Maybe they aren’t actually Marauders and I’ve (unlikely) screwed up by choosing to side with this village. Allee and that other village lady are also currently laying down the body of the last Marauder, who we’ve found dead in the ditch. Besides a few bruises or cuts, the villagers and I managed to win this battle without any casualties. I guess, strength in numbers helped us win this little battle.

But before I go to question the alive Marauders, some of the village elders are approaching me. They see (an enchained)) Eseli calmly standing next to me. Their faces show just a slight remark to her presence, but it’s hard to tell what they’re possibly thinking of her. I wonder why these villagers have such a strange reaction to Eseli?

Elder 1: “Traveler, what is your name?”

Oh, right, my name. I never told any of them my name yet.

MC: “I am Amulet Pond.”

Elder 1: “Greetings Amulet Pond…”

Elders 1, 2, and 3: “Firstly, we’d all like to deeply thank you for helping our village!”

They try to bow a little or show some sort of gesture of good will because they’re too frail to properly make a bow. How kind of them! I guess I am the hero after all in this little story!

Elder 2: “But, we have other things to say. Truthfully, some of us in the village do not feel as celebratory as the others… What you have done now is a great, brave, and amazing deed! But, to some of us, it was too dangerous and risky.

Elder 3: “Even with slaying those rotten Marauders!”

Elder 2: “Yes, even with that. You and we managed to stand up to those Marauders, but what if some those type of people ever decide to come back here? Maybe because of revenge or because they’ve heard that we might try to resist like we did today, then that could only mean they’ll treat us in a meaner way next time. It’s unlikely for a traveler such as yourself to remain at our village for a long time, so, how could we ever protect ourselves again now that we’ve ‘raised the flag up this high’? We understand if you do not have any answer or solution to our new concern, but we wish to let you know that your actions were perhaps too rash and risky for everyone else. It does pain me to say such things to our savior, but it is the truth.”

Elder 1: “We do not expect anything more, but is there anything you can do to make sure our village will not be harmed again because of today’s battle?”

Wow, I didn’t consider that before. I should have, after all this is what this game is capable of, advanced AI and a dynamic open world which is full of possibilities.

It does sound a bit stupid that they’re blaming me for their future problems, but from their perspective it makes reasonable sense, I guess. Nobody, maybe besides Renes, in this village ever asked for anyone to defeat all those Marauders. Now that I have, maybe I am sort of responsible for the near future fate of this village. I think in this particular instance, I doubt anything bad will happen to this village in the future because of what I did just now. Since it doesn’t look like these Marauders were part of any larger group. They were just one small band of thieves. But I should definitely in the future consider these possibilities before I might mess up a quest or event later on.

Ah, right, I need to respond with one of these dialogue options…

[I’ll do anything in my power to protect this village! Don’t worry.]

[I understand, and I am sorry if anything does happen]

[Perhaps there is something I can do to aid you, in order to prevent trouble in the future?]

[What are you talking about? This is nonsense!]

[I don’t care, I saved you today, but it doesn’t mean I have to keep looking out for you]

[Where’s my payment? I’m leaving anyways, so give me a reward before I do]

What a range of options to choose from!

I don’t feel angry at these villagers, so I don’t care about any of the bottom choices. But I’m definitely not picking the choice where I will guarantee my protection to them. Maybe I should pick the option asking for my payment, it’s a bit rude but it’s also still a pretty neutral and fair enough request. Afterall, I did come here seeking for some job and a reward. I might as well leave right away soon since I don’t want to bother doing small-time jobs here anymore. I could simply say [I understand, and I am sorry if anything does happen], but there is an option similar to that where I could “aid you to prevent trouble in the future”. I want to pick that choice because it seems I’ll be able to see more dialogue choices afterwards.

MC: “Perhaps there is something I can do to aid you, in order to prevent trouble in the future?”

Elder 2: “I’m sorry, but if you don’t know any solutions, then how could we?”

Elder 1: “Well, this wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place if we had more capable men in this village. Our young lads are still growing up, so they aren’t strong to do the big work. But perhaps you could go to the large town of Susana? It’s somewhat nearby to the northwest alongside side Zamara River. You’ll see it if you get there, it’s a lot bigger than this village. You could maybe try to plead with their lord-mayor to send us a small group of their city guards to protect this village?”

Elder 3: “We couldn’t possibly ask Amulet Pond here, to go as far as to trouble himself, with trying to plead with that lord-mayor! I’ve heard mostly bad rumors about him.”

Elder 1: “Rumors are still merely rumors. Amulet Pond, the lord-mayor in Susana is known to be a very eccentric fellow. He is not cruel nor greedy, but the rumors say that he often arbitrarily asks for absurd demands. This is one possible job which you may be able to do for us. So that you can help ensure us a stable future.”

Elder 2: “Yes, it does sound like a possible solution. But again, sir Amulet! Please do not take this request the wrong way. There is no way we expect you to do such a thing, but if you do, then we won’t need to worry about the security of this village. You’ve proven yourself so far to be a capable traveler, so we now ask you this as a possible freelancer.”

These old people are talking a lot more than I thought they could.

So, I have only the options of “yes” or “no” or “maybe” to select. Again, I don’t want to guarantee anything, so I’ll just pick the option “maybe”. I don’t want to accept a quest which I might fail or not want to do later on. But I might as well try and convince the lord-mayor to send some guards over, since this town called “Susana” sounds interesting. How hard could that possibly be? Two or four guards should be enough.

MC: “I do not accept this offer, but if I do go to Susana, then I’ll attempt to convince their lord-mayor to send over some guards.”

They look pretty satisfied with my response.

Elders 1, 2, and 3: “Very well then. Thank you once again, Amulet Pond, for having stood up and giving us the courage to defeat the Marauders!”

I’m seeing a strong glow appear on my screen! A lot of numbers surging into my Experience Bar…looks like I’ve leveled up again! Does this mean I’ve completed the quest? Looks like it, I’ve managed to protect this village from the Marauders, and this is my reward experience.

Elders 3: “Ah, sir Amulet! Before we end our conversation, please look over at the bodies of the Marauders. Perhaps there are things that could be of use to you in your travels.”

Looks like this conversation has finally ended. But more importantly…

Awesome, I get to loot their bodies! Though, I was going to do that anyways…

*Amulet Pond turns around and immediately rush-hits Eseli*

I forgot Eseli was standing next to me! I wonder if she’s like my companion now. I’ve never had AI characters follow me around before in this game. But I can’t tell whether this is the way AI companions are supposed behave in this game, or is this Eseli’s personality that is simply like this? She’s still looking aimlessly at the distance with her eyes half closed. Is she half awake? Whatever, first I will go over to look at the bodies of the dead Marauders, then I’ll try to talk to the defeated Marauders in hopes that I could learn anything interesting, and finally I’ll talk to Eseli directly and try to remove her chains. Actually, aren’t I able to do it myself without directly interacting with her?

Let’s see, looks like there is a key lock on the binds which are placed on the chains that surround Eseli’s body. What if I tap on the chains, since they are an object, and try to remove them that way?

“To remove the binds off… you must either have a key to unseal them or perform a high enough level of damage to break these binds.”

So, there probably is a key somewhere. I could also try to break them by force, but I don’t want to accidently jump strike Eseli with my woodcutting axe. The key must be with the dead Marauder I found in the ditch earlier. I’ll go over to check his body.

Walking over towards these dead Marauder bodies is a bit of a grim scene. Usually in MMORPGs, these bodies would either disappear as soon as they die (sparkly!) or slowly disappear eventually over time (sinking into the ground!). But this game isn’t doing that. Hey! Wouldn’t having a lot of corpses in the game world just unnecessarily decrease the game’s performance for everyone? What if a hundred NPCs died, would their bodies just still remain in the game world? What even happens later on to the dead bodies in Divine Mortality anyways?

Maybe I could ask a villager about this…

There isn’t any option to ask about “what happens to the corpses in this game after some time”, but there is an option available for me to ask about what will they now do with these bodies.

MC: “What will the village now do with the bodies of the dead Marauders?”

Villager: “I think one of the village elders said that we will give them a standard burial, but Allee suggested that we should have Renes take them to a nearby crypt for lesser people”

MC: “I see, thank you”

I’ll just start searching for the key, while I think about this…

So, do most bodies in this game just decompose over time like in real life? No, maybe not. I think the decomposition rate should at least be a lot faster than in the real world. Plus, from this game’s style of graphics (partially cartoonish), I don’t see it realistically showing each stage of decomposition, yuck. The character’s model will just probably slowly faze into a skeleton, eventually after some time has passed. I feel confident that’s the way the developers designed this part of the game.

This is what happens when your game has too much detail! It makes me care about pointless things like this…who cares. Oh, I found the key!

Eseli still has been calmly standing next to me this whole time. This is definitely some sort of AI problem, right? She’s mostly silent, the only sound she is making is “nnn” while her mouth is closed. And the only obvious motion she’s making, is slowly swinging her tail around side to side. Are you really a Snowmel or just an ordinary pet cat?

I’ve now opened her binds with the key. The chains which surrounded her body, and the part that I’ve been holding unto this whole time, have instantly dropped to the ground. What the hell, I feel like I’m something like a slaver!

But at least Eseli definitely doesn’t look like a slave to me. If anything, it’s the opposite. Not only does her robe have a hoody, which mine doesn’t, but her robe also looks a lot cooler and fancier than mine. It isn’t a super-rich robe, but it has interesting patterns to it, which mine also doesn’t have. My robe is simply just a standard itchy looking plain colored robe. I need to get some new clothes!

Umm, Ms. Lady-Cat? Do you have anything to say? I just released your bind, maybe you didn’t notice!

Let me motion my arms very expressively with my controller, as if I’m saying “HELLO! Can you see what I’m doing right in front of you?”

…

While she isn’t looking aimlessly with her eyes anymore, instead she is now lazily looking at me while I’m swinging my arms directly in front of her. She forms a very slight open mouth smile of amusement. Dammit! Show more expression!