The world spun around me as the portal spat me out into the main game world and I shook my head to clear blinking.

“Jeez, they really need to fix that,” I muttered to myself before noticing a man in full plate-mail gesturing at me impatiently.

“Come on outsider, you don’t want to be standing there if someone else comes through,” the man grumbled.

I hastily stepped off the platform that I was on and walked over to the man, “Go through there,” he said rolling his eyes at me as he gestured to an archway on his left.

Huh, rude NPCs, that’s kind of new.

Noticing the man still glaring at me I did as he bid before he decided that I was dangerous and came into a room with another man sitting behind a desk. He looked up at me over a bristling moustache as I walked in.

“Ahem, state your name for the record,” he requested pulling a quill out of thin air.

“Zeke,” I replied, this was odd, why would NPC’s need to know a player’s name? Were they treating us like some form of immigrant?

“Oh? You actually have a normal name do you, young man?” asked as he raised an eyebrow at me in amusement.

“Uhh, yeah?” I replied hesitantly. Did some of the players ignore their AI’s and pick weird names or something?

Wait, why am I surprised the people would do that?

“Dammit,” he mumbled. “I guess I have to return one of Renald’s coppers now.”

Huh, are they actually making bets on this? Just how bad have some of these names been?

I sniggered as I remembered some of the names that players insisted on using in some games realizing that this man had been making a killing betting on whether a Player would have some weird name with the guard which explained the other man’s irritation. Despite games being considerably more realistic than they used to be some players insisted on choosing the weirdest names for themselves. It was something of a tradition.

“Anything else?” I asked in an exasperated tone of voice causing the man’s moustache to bristle once more, this time in surprise rather than irritation.

“Oh? Sorry about that lad, I do have some things to give you,” he said looking slightly embarrassed that he’d kept me waiting. He reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out a small sack, a few small bottles, and a sheet of paper.

“Right, so this is some coin, I understand that you outsiders don’t carry much on you when you first arrive in this world, if you carry any at all as well as some potions and a map of the lovely town of Ponson which you are now in,” he said handing the items over.

I put the money and potions into my inventory briefly noting that I now had three minor health potions and two minor spirit potions which restored 25 HP and SP respectively and looked at the map in confusion then blinked in surprise as a prompt appeared asking me if I wanted to add this map to my own, I hastily selected yes and breathed a sigh of relief as a tiny map appeared in the corner of my vision.

“I’ll never get used to seeing that,” he remarked drily.

“Do you locals not have an Inventory?” I asked trying out a term that the NPC’s would hopefully understand.

“Locals huh?” he asked flashing me a wry grin from beneath his moustache. “I like that, and no, we have to carry things around like normal people.”

I smiled in reply, “Well you called us ‘outsiders’ so it kinda made sense to call you ‘locals.’”

It was interesting that Inventories were limited to players, not uncommon in a lot of games but the obvious intelligence of these NPC’s made it an interesting choice and I was starting to wonder what effects this could have on the game world.

“Anything else I can help you with lad?” he asked, suddenly all business.

I thought about it briefly, now that I had the map of this town, I would be able to find the shops I had thought I would have to look for, “Do you know about any jobs that I could help out with in town?” I asked finally.

“Hmm,” the man eyed me briefly noting the way I carried myself and the battered equipment that I had. “Well now, normally I’d send you to help with the local rabbit infestation, but you look like you can handle yourself so how about this; you go get yourself some more healing items and report to Sergeant Jameson at the north gate, he’ll fill you in on the job. Tell him Kimble sent you.”

I rolled my eyes at the mention of the most stereotypical starting quests I had ever heard as a notification flew across in front of me.

New Quest!

You look like you can handle yourself.

(Uncommon Ranked Chain Quest)

Due to you winning the tutorial fight on the first try you have been offered a different quest than the usual. Go and buy some supplies and report to Sergeant Jameson at the north gate of Ponson.

Success Conditions

Report to Sergeant Jameson with an acceptable number of supplies before sundown.

Rewards

Access to the next part of the quest, increased reputation with Ponson’s guards and 10 Exp.

Holy crap, this looks like a much harder quest than the rabbit one, judging by the fact that the description was specifically telling me to go and get recovery items the things I was going to be fighting were probably several levels higher than I was right now.

What’s more it looked like the rewards for winning the tutorial fight were much greater than I had been told, the first part of this chain quest seemed simple at first until you realized that there was nothing mentioned about what sort of supplies you needed to bring. Getting a chain quest like this straight away would probably cause problems for me if anyone found out about it, but it was something that could only be earned not bought.

Thanking Kimble, I walked outside into the idyllic village of Ponson, it looked like a typical if slightly too clean medieval village though I could detect a certain collection of smells that I could only describe as ‘rural’ wafting in on the slight breeze. Looking around I noticed that the streets were far from crowded a few villagers going about their daily routine and some children playing by the side of the dirt road but not a single player to be seen.

I wondered briefly about this as I walked down the street, was I really running this late or was it something else, I’d have to ask Katy later, I decided just as I stepped on a particularly sharp rock and yelped in pain as I hopped around holding my injured foot.

Right, first things first these stupid footwraps had to go, I couldn’t do much fighting if I was constantly avoiding stepping on sharp stones and the like.

As I thought this, I could swear I heard a girl giggle and I looked around in irritation but the kids who were playing nearby were ignoring me, so I shrugged and carried on.

Focusing on the tiny map in the corner of my vision I blinked in surprise as it suddenly expanded so that I could read it easier, I smiled to myself, now that’s a handy feature.

Quickly discovering the direction of the marketplace, I hobbled down the street a short way on my injured foot before my HP regen dealt with it and I was able to walk properly again. Now able to move at a faster place I walked down the street with a spring in my step, this was more like it! The game world was beautiful and more vibrant than I had been expecting with a high level of realism and the NPCs seemed almost real.

Thinking about this for a while I realized that Gransoft were using the same type of AI’s as Katy to act as NPCs, Gransoft’s parent company made military grade AIs and it seemed that they were using that technology to create AI’s that were almost indistinguishable from humans. Military AIs were essentially the high-functioning sociopaths of the AI world, so AIs like the ones running the NPC’s in Soul Core Online would be useless due to their apparent levels of emotion, humanity had learned the hard way that military AIs would go insane if they had true emotions about twenty years ago when they first started being developed. The first true military AI had only lasted a couple of months before its sanity started degrading, it simply couldn’t handle the loss of life involved in a wartime situation. This had led to the current method of removing most of a military AI’s emotions, something which multiple groups decried as immoral but the companies that created these AIs managed to prove that their AIs would save human lives and laws had been passed allowing them to create the near emotionless AI’s that they now sold to governments the world over.

The AI’s that Gransoft were using to control the NPCs were far more advanced than the ones that usually controlled even the most important NPCs in other games that I had played, most games had a single AI controlling several NPCs unless they were related to quests somehow which, but Soul Core Online seemed to have a single more advanced AI controlling each NPC which suggested to me that Gransoft was using the game as a testing bed for these new AIs. It also meant that despite the difficulty of the game it was probably going to become immensely popular which meant that I had to hurry and secure my advantage before the game was overrun by new players.

As I thought this, I noticed that I was getting some strange looks from the nearby NPCs as I walked past, bewildered by this I looked around, was a player really such an odd sight here? What was going on?

And then I realized why they were looking at me like that, I was still holding onto my spear! Blushing slightly, I put the spear away in my Inventory causing even more people to stare at me in shock and I slapped my forehead. Now I had forgotten that NPCs didn’t have Inventories, some veteran player I was turning out to be!

Ignoring the stares from the nearby villagers I finally managed to reach the marketplace, which was set up in what seemed to be the town square. It was a bustling area covered in small stalls that sold a variety of goods, from simple weapons to vegetables. Looking around the area I noticed that several people were running around barging into the villagers causing them to shout angrily. I shook my head at this sight, it seemed that I had found my first players.

I shook my head at their ridiculous antics it was obvious to me that despite Soul Core Online being called a ‘hardcore’ game that these players were anything but hardcore and I chose to ignore them hoping that the NPCs either wouldn’t know I was a player myself or that they would judge me for my own actions as opposed to the actions of those other players.

I walked calmly into the crowded marketplace looking around for a stall that sold some form of footwear, ignoring the players when they passed me as they ran through the crowd. Soon I had found a stall run by a little old woman who watched me warily as I looked over her merchandise, there were few interesting options and those that were interesting were out of my price range, so I soon settle on a simple pair of sandals and gave the little old lady the six coppers that they cost causing her to smile gratefully. I wouldn’t be able to equip them until I was alone but at least I now had a replacement for the footwraps.

“Thank you, young man,” she croaked. “I’m glad to see that not all of you outsiders are the same.”

“Yeah, sadly some of us are a bit stupid,” I said as I frowned at another player who bumped into me as they ran past.

“Is there something wrong with them?” she asked worriedly. “Some of them have even tried to steal from me, I just sell shoes for goodness sake!”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that ma’am,” I replied, I was beginning to feel quite annoyed at these players. It was all very well and good if they wanted to play as a villain but stealing shoes was just sad.

“Some people just have no respect for the elderly!” I said loudly causing some of the villagers to look at me gratefully even as the players in earshot turned to glare at me.

“You got a problem mate?” one of the more belligerent players asked me.

“No,” I replied calmly. “But if you keep acting the way you are the guards might have something to say about it.”

“Oh, come off it, it’s just a game!” he snapped. “The guards won’t do anything unless we get caught!”

This outburst caused the crowd of slowly gathering villagers to mutter angrily.

“This is our world outsider!” one of the villagers cried angrily from the depths of the crowd causing a chorus of agreement to rumble outwards.

The player backed away, surprised by the sudden outburst but I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, it was time to deliver a message to my fellow player before they ruined things for all of us.

“That’s right,” I hissed into the players shocked face. “This is their world; would you act like that in our world?”

The player shook his head quickly, still in a state of shock due to the unexpectedness of my actions.

“Well then,” I continued surprised by the intensity of my own voice, apparently, I felt a bit more strongly about this than I had thought. I was starting to feel a little sorry for the kid who was looking at me with wide unblinking eyes.

“Why do you think it’s alright to do that here?” I asked releasing the player who fell to his knees and stared at the ground in silence.

I turned back to the old woman with a smile plastered across my face, “Please don’t let people like him change how you view the rest of us,” I requested.

The NPC stared at me in shocked silence before smiling back, “I won’t, just so long as you keep treating us with the same respect you are now,” she said holding out a weathered hand which I gently shook causing the crowd of NPCs, no, the villagers watching us to cheer.

Special Action Completed!

Due to your actions, your reputation with the village of Ponson has increased and you have earned the Title Friend of the People!

+100 to reputation with the village of Ponson.

Title: Friend of the people

Charisma increased by 1.

Increases Charisma by a further 1 point when dealing with commoners.

Reputation Increased!

Congratulations your reputation with the village of Ponson has increased to Accepted (500 reputation required to reach the next level).

At Accepted reputation you can enjoy a 5% reduction when buying goods in Ponson.

I fought my gamer’s urge to shout in excitement at the two notifications that warred for dominance within my vision. Both rewards would be a great help to me going forwards though sadly the bonus from my reputation only counted while I was in Ponson. It seemed that gaining Titles was one of the other ways to gain Stats that Katy had mentioned, I wonder what the other ones could be Quest Rewards perhaps?

“Is there anything else I can help you with young man?” the old lady asked breaking me out of my reverie.

“Can you point me to some stalls that sell medical supplies and food?” I asked, and she nodded and pointed to her left.

“There are two places that I like down that way, make sure to grab some of their herbal tea, it’s my favorite,” she said with a smile, I thanked her and headed away from her stall wondering what had come over me. I wasn’t usually that overbearing in games and in real life I would have avoided confrontation at all costs. I sighed, I guess that was just yet another thing to add to my list of questions, though even I had to admit that I probably wasn’t getting an answer to that one.

I found the stores easily enough and managed to buy some more minor healing potions, some bandages to remove bleeding debuffs, a couple of herbs that would relieve poison as well as some of that herbal tea the old lady had recommended. It provided a boost to SP regeneration, so I saw it as a worthy purchase. I also may have had a sneaking suspicion that the old man who sold it to me would’ve told the old lady if I hadn’t and I didn’t want to find out if that would make me lose reputation.

Having hopefully brought everything I would need to complete the requirements for the next quest I headed north, cutting briefly into a small alleyway to equip my new sandals which flickered and replaced my footwraps on my feet causing me to breathe a sigh of relief, those things were not comfortable to walk in. The sandals provided me with three physical defense and that was it, but it was still three higher than what the footwraps gave me, so I was happy to see the back of them.

Whistling cheerfully, I continued my merry way towards the north gate where I saw a rather large man with a mane of bright red hair waiting for me.

“Sergeant Jameson?” I asked hesitantly as I approached the brawny individual who turned to look at me and snorted.

“Aye, that’s me, what do ya want kid?” he asked rudely.

“A man named Kimble sent me to find you Sergeant,” I replied causing one of Jameson’s crimson eyebrows to raise. “He said you might have a job for me?”

“So, the old man’s finally run out of men to send me and now I’m getting scrawny kids like you to help kill of the terrors?” asked as he snorted at me in amusement.

“Terrors sir?” I asked holding back the urge to swallow nervously and proving the man right in his description of me.

“Aye lad the Terrors, well these ones are only chicks, but they’ll still turn you into mincemeat if you so much as look at em funny,” the man replied pointing at a small red mound outside the village gates.

“That used to be the last guy Kimble sent to help me, he was one of you outsiders as well, but he never came back after what happened to him,” the big man explained causing me to gulp.

“Uh, so what do these ‘Terrors’ look like?” I asked weakly, I was really starting to regret ever taking this quest.

“Big, flightless birds with razor sharp claws and beaks,” Jameson replied quietly. He seemed to know that I was wary about continuing the quest, however interestingly he didn’t seem to be judging me for this and seemed resigned to the idea that I would refuse the quest in the end.

“The ones you’ll be fighting if you want to continue only come up to your waist, but they’re fast and they normally move in groups,” he sighed. “Look kid, if you don’t want to do this, I wouldn’t blame you…”

I hesitated, I wasn’t looking forward to dying in this world, but this quest looked like my best option to get ahead of everyone else.

“I’ll do it,” I decided, this quest was a risk, if I messed up, I would be out of pocket but if I could hold my own against monsters that were a higher level than I was then I would have a good head start on some of the other players.

“You got balls kid, not many people would have wanted to continue after that,” Jason laughed. “Now show me what you brought with you, don’t worry if you don’t have something, you’ve still got a couple of hours before the deadline.”

“Aye that should do,” he said with a pleased nod. “Looks like you had a bit more money on you than most outsiders,” he said noting my new sandals.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I managed to do something not all of us could and I got a reward for it.”

“Hmm, that must have been what Kimble sensed about you,” he mused. “The old man always did have a gift for finding capable people.”

I smirked at the compliment, it appeared that Jameson had already accepted that I was capable enough to take on his quest.

“Right then!” he said clapping his meaty hands together loudly. “Here’s what you need to know!”

You look like you can handle yourself (Part 1) Complete!

Rewards

Access to the next part of the quest, + 50 reputation with Ponson’s guards and 10 Exp

Quest Updated!

You look like you can handle yourself (Part two)

(Uncommon Ranked Chain Quest)

Now that you’ve got your supplies and been cleared for duty Jameson requested that you help him with the local Terror Bird problem.

Success Conditions

Kill 10 Sickly Terror Chicks and return with their crests as proof.

Rewards

Access to the next part of the quest, increased reputation with Ponson’s guards, 5 Silver and 500 Exp.

“Don’t worry lad,” the big man said with a laugh. “Don’t stray too far and if you get in over your head run as fast as you can back here, and I’ll try and save you. Just try not to annoy too many of them and only go after the weaker looking ones for now!”

I nodded my gratitude thankful that he was willing to help but mindful that his previous helper had still died, presumably in a horrible way.

A small grey bar appeared at the bottom of my vision and filled up about a tenth of the way. It seemed that I only needed 100 Exp to reach the next Level meaning that 500 Exp was quite a lot at this point in the game which didn’t exactly make me feel any more confident than I was already feeling.

“Hand me your map lad, and I’ll mark where you need to go,” said Jameson holding out his hand.

“Uhh,” I stared at Jameson for a few seconds making the large man shift uncomfortably before admitting that he didn’t know how he was supposed to do that.

“Seriously!?” the man shouted, looking at me in amazement. “I thought you outsiders were supposed to have some sort of spirit guide to help you figure things like that out?”

I frowned at this, was he referring to a players AI? How was Katy supposed to help me when she couldn’t join me in the game?

“You could just try asking for help,” a girl’s voice suggested causing me to leap into the air, looking around for the voice’s owner. However, the only person within earshot was Jameson who was looking as surprised by my actions as I was by what had caused them.

“Don’t bother looking for me, I can’t appear in that world after all,” the voice continued when I had calmed down.

“Wait, Katy? Is that you,” I asked having finally recognized the voice.

“Who else would it be?” Katy asked drily.

Well, that’s true… wait a minute.

“Katy have you been watching me this whole time?” I ask remembering the giggle I had heard when I hurt my foot.

“Of course, I have, watching you is my job.”

That’s honestly a little embarrassing. oh well at least she knows about the problem I’ve been having.

“So how do I show Jameson my map?” I asked turning back to the large man who was watching me speak to thin air with a confused expression on his face.

“It’s quite simple, imagine your map appearing in your hand and say ‘Map,’ she replied, because of course it was that simple.

Resisting the urge to slap myself on the forehead I held out my hand and concentrated.

“Map!”

A smallish sheath of folded paper appeared in my hand and I passed it to Jameson who tapped it a few times and returned it to me.

“Wait that’s it?” I asked confirming the notification that asked me whether I wanted to accept the changes made to my map. Confirmation from both Jameson and Katy echoed in my ears causing me to wince slightly.

“Alright, well thanks for your help Jameson, but I’d better get going now,” I said heading out the gate.

It was time to hunt some mobs.