As we approach closer to Susana town, I can now start seeing a river appearing in the distance. While the land that we’re on is fairly flat, the land closer to the town and river is a bit hillier. It looks like Susana was built on a hill since it’s easier to spot it from farther away.

MC: “FeeNix, why did you want to go to Susana? You said something earlier, but I forgot.”

FeeNix: “Oh, I wanted to go with ya two peepz, cause a place like Susana probably has a lotta booze’n’crews enough to fill my shoes.

MC: “What are booze’n’crews?”

FeeNix: “Sheez dude! What ya do when ya play a role-payin in a game?”

MC: “Roleplay Games?”

FeeNix: “Ye-ye-ye, first, check out da club houses for jobs in ya role-payin game, so ya can get them sweet wheat treats called eX-Pee. If ya can’t find any club houses, look for hidden cribs like them almhouses, churches (with pretty nurses), and anything ranging from borin bars to spicy bazaars.”

MC: “Oh, so your just saying that a big town like Susana will have many quests and activities to do when we’re there?”

FeeNix: “Ye-ye, I see and agree with whatchya sayin”

…

MC: “Also, why are you always rapping?”

FeeNix: “Wanna hear me spit a long gist? It’ll be like a stylish long list.”

MC: “Eh, not now.”

FeeNix: “Well then all ya need to know, about all this flow, is that emceeing is my spiritual being!”

MC: “Alright, good to know, keep bustin those rhymes!”

FeeNix: “For sure!”

Is FeeNix really a player? I feel like I’m talking to a fictional character instead.

So yeah. Before, I didn’t really think much about Susana, except it’s where my quests point me towards. But now I’m feeling excited to finally arrive there, especially because FeeNix reminded me that there will probably be a lot of content to play there.

Oh, it’s almost midnight already. I shouldn’t wake up late tomorrow…But I’ll continue playing a bit longer because I shouldn’t just disappear on Krafty and May when they arrive at Susana.

It’ll now be more exciting to be at Susana because I’ll be meeting my new friends there. And, I’ll also probably get to learn more about Eseli after buying her food. Who she is. Whether she’s a follower or not. And whether she’s useful or not. The useful part is of course referring to whether she’ll be able to teach me magic. However, I’m not so desperate to have her stop following me if she won’t be able to teach me magic. Having a capable mage (or whatever she is) following me around is awesome and useful. Also, she often doesn’t make much noise. I consider that to be a good side of her. I believe sometimes having a lively NPC character around you is more of a burden than a blessing. Anyways, I even know where I should be going to learn some magic, so I don’t need to rely on her to somehow show me the way. WiseMaster667 told me to let him know whenever I decide to head out towards another region such as Orchard Hills or the Marchdom of Sonder because he said he wants us to go together. But I feel like I will just disappoint him, because I don’t see myself heading towards either of those places anytime. So, he’ll likely have to wait a while before I am ready and prepared to go.

Finally! It looks like we’re approaching the gates of this town. I can see its flags flying above the wall towers and its banners hanging on the exterior side of the entrance wall. I’ve noticed that the landscape is getting a bit more crowded with more stuff around. There are huts and little farms right outside this town. Barrels, camps, wagons, carts, logs, bags, and all the other stuff you’d expect entering a large town. I suppose this might be a castle town. Or is it simply just a walled town? I mean, the walls seem long and fairly big, stretching far to each side. Maybe it just depends on whether there is a castle inside a settlement or not, for it to be considered a castle town.

I think it took us about 25 minutes of travel time to reach here. The journey has ended faster than how long it took me when I traveled from the Starter Town to the village I’ve just recently left.

While me and FeeNix were walking on a dirt path through a small woodland, we didn’t see other Players or NPCs because the foliage covered our sights. But now we can clearly see a lot more NPC people who’re moving around this whole area. I see some of them are living at this small “suburban” area outside of town. Then there are NPCs who are casually moving into and out of the town. Seems like trade is bustling. Already, the number of NPCs I see outside of Susana is double the amount I saw back at the village I was at. Now, I wonder how many more are inside the town.

“Hear-Hear! Come visit LongOx Inn, the place that serves the best meat and offers a place to stay!”

“Have you heard of the prices for those herbs which Timin sells? I’ve heard they skyrocketed since the Divine Spirits arrived in our world!”

“Iron Pie has the biggest and best armor in Susana!”

“Metal Garden has the cheapest arms and armor in Susana, and we also perform bard concerts almost every night!”

“What has the lord-mayor done this time?! Have you asked what the guards heard about it yet?”

“Get away from my cart Dynila! I told you, I’m done doing business with you…!”

Yup, it sure is how I imagine a medieval-fantasy town environment to be like. Ah and look at those smokestacks floating above the city. You need to produce more CO2 in order to compete with the real world!

As we’re approaching the gate, I can see glimpses of the city interior. Here outside the city, the buildings are made out of mostly either wood or simple cobblestone like I saw at the Starting Town. But, if my eyes are not mistaken, I see some Mediterranean looking roof tiles on those buildings! The people around here, aren’t just Lumenians or Himenians (humans). And while I don’t see any Snowmel and I’ve only spotted one Sunmel, the rest of the NPCs made up of a lot of Elves and Dwarves. Actually, a lot more Dwarves than I expected. But where are all my Dwelf kin at?

There were about a dozen guards standing around the gate. Some of them are simply standing and looking at the passers through. The others are inspecting the carts and wagons which were passing into and out of town. And there are two of the guards who’re questioning people like us, those who do not reside at this town. I guess for the best possible first impressions…I should let go of Eseli before they get the wrong impression that I’m some sort of kidnapper or just a very bad person.

I’ve turned my head around to see Eseli behind me. I then am fiddling with my VR controller before the hands of Amulet Pond releases his grip on Eseli’s wrist and drops her on the ground. At least, both Eseli and Amulet Pond should consider themselves lucky that this isn’t a specifically realistic world. They’re lucky because they don’t feel the pain of being dragged on the ground for about 30 minutes or having your arm stretched out behind your back while gripping onto someone. Anyways, it’s nice to see that I didn’t need to go into conversation mode for her to understand that I’m no longer going to be dragging her around like she earlier requested me to. Now she has stood up and is following me behind me as usual. Now let’s continue walking towards the guards by the gate. For a moment FeeNix slowed down to wait for me and Eseli to catch up. He also slowed down his beatboxing until we continued moving, now he’s beatboxing at his usual pace again. In a realistic situation I’d tell him to stop beatboxing when we’ll approach the guards, but I doubt the game or the guards care about it since the AI don’t react to a Player’s voice chat sounds.

Guard 1: “Halt, who are the two of you?

Is he referring to Amulet and Eseli or Amulet and FeeNix? Come to think of it, how do these dialogue conversations work when there are multiple Players around? So far, I’ve only experienced one on one conversations with the AI.

Guard 2: “Right you are good sir, you may proceed on Elf.”

*FeeNix spins around smiling and giving a thumbs up while he moves forward*

Hey! FeeNix somehow has already breezed past talking with the guard? Oh right, I guess since me and FeeNix didn’t form a group party together, then we aren’t intertwined. So, we won’t have situations such as this affect the both of us. But I still wonder how this’ll have worked if we were both in a party together. Would we have taken turns responding in conversation mode, or it might have simply been based on whoever responded first?

Guard 1: “I said, who are the two of you?”

Oh right, I forgot AI have a limited patience. I was just lost in thought, so I didn’t choose an option to respond with right away. Let’s see…

[My name is Amulet Pond, and this is Eseli]

[Amulet Pond]

[Does it matter?]

[We are Divine Spirits]

[We are Divine Spirits, that’s who]

[Do not test a Divine Spirit’s patience]

[Never mind us, we’ll ask to enter later]

[*Make a run for it*]

So, besides the other options, I’ve noticed that there are usually two sides to what type of response I could select. You can either respond as your “mortal” side, simply who your physical character is. Or you can respond with your “divine” side, as who you are internally which is a divine spirit. So far, Amulet Pond has been a character of some modesty, so I’ll keep it that way.

MC: “My name is Amulet Pond, and this is Eseli”

Guard 1: “Do you have a resident’s pass?”

MC: “No, we’re new here”

Guard 1: “Why do you want to enter the city?”

Hmm, I’ve gotten a bunch of different “normal” response options, like “for job opportunities”. Or I could instead select a response with a “(Quest Option)” to its side. This reminds me of the “(Dwelf Option)” that I had picked earlier when I entered the village. So, this choice I have now must be referring to the optional quest which the village elders asked me to do. Which is to request the lord-mayor to send some city guards to be stationed at the village. I mean, this quest is partially the reason why I decided to come here in the first place. So, I’ll pick this “(Quest Option)” response.

MC: “I’ve come to Susana in order to request an audience with the lord-mayor. I come on behalf of a village southeast of here, which is requesting for aid from the lord-mayor. May I speak to the lord-mayor?”

Guard 1: *coughs* “…Uh…let’s see…while the lord-mayor does certainly take his time to listen to the requests of the citizens and peasantry alike…uh…are you sure you wish to speak with the lord-mayor?”

What’s with this terrified tone the guard suddenly has?! It’s obviously a sign of “oh no, why are you asking this?”. I get that the lord-mayor is apparently an eccentric type of person. In these fantasy worlds, there are usually a lot of strange personalities, like Eseli over here. But how bad could he possibly be? The game is even giving me a “yes” or “NO” option, with the word “yes” being in all lowercase while the word “no” is clearly in all uppercase. This hasn’t happened to me before! Does this mean I’ll have to fight a difficult monster or do something challenging later on if I continue? That shouldn’t be the case…this is just a simple quest to persuade the lord-mayor to send a few guards over, right? How hard could it possibly be? Alright… Amulet! Don’t let this trick scare you into not proceeding ahead…

MC: “Yes, I am certain I wish to speak with the lord-mayor”

Guard 1: “Very well… we’ll send a messenger to inform them about your wish to meet with the lord-mayor. If you wish to be able to pass through this town more easily in the future, then I suggest you visit the city hall for this city’s travel pass. And you should also check with city hall again to learn whether your request to meet with the mayor has been approved or not. You’ll probably be able to do that in an hour, but you’ll only have until the end of tomorrow to confirm your request.

MC: “Understood, thank you”

Well, it’s slightly worrying that the guard sounded terrified about the lord-mayor.

But more importantly right now, it looks like this part of the quest is timed. So, I think I have at least 24 hours to check in with the city hall to see whether my appointment with the lord-mayor has been approved or not.

I can now pass through the gate with Eseli. Also, I can see that FeeNix has been waiting for me on the other side of the gate.

As I pass through the gate, I can see a very wide street in front of me which seems to go all the way towards the other side of the city. I guess this is the main street. There are also many other smaller streets which diverge off this main street. While everything in between is just a bunch of buildings lumped together, they at least seem to be separated into their own special neighborhoods. And like I saw before entering this town, many of the roofs are covered in reddish tiles that to me look like what you’d see on traditional buildings in the Mediterranean climate.

Based on his body’s motion, it looks like he heard my conversation (again) with that guard.

FeeNix: “Digs’n’Elf, sounds like all yo fun in this game is just run of da-mill quests, what a shame! Almost makin me feel disgust. Dontchya wanna have fun and pound some scum?”

He’s criticizing my play style! Look, I’m sorry I didn’t go straight away to find some wolves to fight when I started playing this game.

MC: “It’s fine FeeNix, I’m enjoying myself while doing these types of quests. I like interacting with the AI and immersing myself with this world.”

FeeNix: “Well suit yo self, but I’ma go employ my Elf to earn some money-honey! Yet, cause I only met’ya amuLET, it’ll be a scam for me to scram off right away. So, wouldn’t ya say, we can add me to yo Friends List for free? Then ya can later see me back, and I’ll give ya a sweet snack.”

MC: “uhh…fine, yeah sure. I’ll add you right now.

FeeNix: “Sweet, thanks for appointen me, don’t worry-I won’t disappoint. Now I’ma go and have me some curry. Peace out!”