The guards laughed and chatted amongst themselves as they went about collecting various parts from the vanquished Terror Chick as Jameson looked down at me with a pleased look on his face.

“Two huh?” he asked. “Not bad for someone at your Level kid, even if you went after the weakest ones there. Looks like Kimble still has a good eye for capable people after all.”

I had been expecting him and the other guards to be angry about bringing a horde of monsters right to the village gate, but it looks like they were quite happy that they were able to supplement their pay with some of the drops from the Terror Chicks.

“Next time though, I’d suggest going out in the early morning,” Jameson said drawing my attention back to him.

He looked away from my eyes as I turned to look at him with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

“Terror Birds are more active in the evenings and at night, so this was actually a bad time to send you out hunting them,” he continued scratching the side of his face with a finger.

I stared at the massive man silently as thoughts about what I could say to that flew around inside my head. But as I had no intentions of going for respawn immediately after escaping from a horde of giant man-eating birds there wasn’t much that I could say to him in response.

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied eventually. “You saved me in the end, so let’s just say we’re even, yeah?”

“Really?” Jameson asked me in surprise. “You’re willing to just let that go?”

“Well yeah, I didn’t die and even if I had, outsiders can come back from the dead remember?” I replied, now that I had calmed down after what had happened, I felt happier about the choice I had made not to blame Jameson for what had happened. It wasn’t like it was completely his fault anyway I had forgotten to collect any information he might have had on the Terror Birds which would’ve helped remind him. For goodness’ sake I was trying to make money as a gamer I should be doing better than this when it comes to information gathering.

“That’s true,” muttered Jameson thoughtfully. “But I still feel like I owe you, is there anything I can do to help you in any way?”

It was obvious he felt guilty over forgetting to tell me about the Terror Chicks’ sleeping patterns, making me wonder whether he had forgotten to tell the previous player who had been sent to help as well. Thinking about it now, I guess it could even be part of the quest.

As for something Jameson could do to help me, hmmm. Suddenly a thought came to me and I grinned as new plans started to fall into place.

“Is there any way I could get some training?” I asked. In a lot of games, you had to train to unlock certain skills, and boost your stats so training areas were common. I wasn’t sure how that would work in Soul Core Online, but I had a hunch that Jameson would be able to help me out if my theory was correct. Even if it wasn’t having somewhere to test out new Skills and practice without having to worry about getting killed by monsters would still be useful especially when I started to make my own Soul Cores.

Jameson’s eyes widened briefly as he heard my question and he looked me over as though considering something.

“Well now, that’s an interesting question,” he rumbled squinting at me.

“I hadn’t really considered the option of training you, most of you outsiders seem to think that you’re more powerful or better than us because you can come back from the dead,” he continued after a few moments of considering my request.

I cringed slightly, it seemed that even a guard like Jameson had discovered that players had a tendency to look down on NPCs. Noticing the look on my face Jameson smirked.

“But,” he said slowly. “I think that it’s a good idea. I’ll check with the guard captain and our trainer tonight, so if you head over to the guard barracks tomorrow morning, I should have an answer for you.”

The sour expression on my face disappeared as Jameson all but confirmed my suspicions that the NPCs of this world had another way of gaining SP (Soul Points) and experience. I assumed that Jameson was only going to ask his superiors if I could get some training either because of my Charisma and Reputation or because it was a hidden part of the Quest that I was doing.

New Quest Unlocked!

Guard Training

(Uncommon Ranked Chain Quest)

Due to you earning the respect of Sergeant Jameson and your Reputation in Ponson you have been offered the chance to train with the Ponson Guards.

Success Conditions

Convince the Guard Captain and the Trainer to let you join the guards’ daily training.

Rewards

Access to the next part of the Quest. Increased Reputation with Ponson’s guards.

Well, that answers that I suppose.

It’s getting dark kid, I’d suggest finding a room at the inn,” Jameson said.

“Zeke,” I told him with a smile, if he was going to help me, it would be useful for him to know my name. “Call me Zeke.”

“Oh? That’s a much better name than the last guy,” he replied with a grin.

“Do I want to know?” I asked warily.

He shook his head, his grin widening, “Probably not Zeke, probably not.”

We laughed as I thought of all the stupid names that some players still called themselves, it might have been acceptable to call yourself something like ‘n00bslayer’ in the games that were around when my parents were young, but when people tried to get away with it a VR game it was just weird. I didn’t even want to think about how weird it would be in a game with NPCs as intelligent as the ones in Soul Core Online.

Walking back through town I noticed once again the lack of other players. Luckily, this time I knew that I could ask Katy what was going on.

“Katy why are there so few players in town?”

“There are currently only 409,953 players logged in to Soul Core Online,” she replied quickly. “They are spread out across over 30 different starter villages in the Kingdom of Issaronia alone so in Ponson there are only 19 players currently online.”

“That seems low,” I mentioned carefully as I walked down the quiet street back towards the market that I’d visited earlier in the hopes of selling the loot I had picked up off the two Sickly Terror Chicks.

“Don’t forget that not only is this a game marketed towards hardcore players, but Gransoft Entertainment hasn’t actually released that many games yet,” Katy replied. “However, as you have no doubt already noted, Soul Core Online is expected to undergo massive growth over the next couple of days.”

I nodded thoughtfully, there was no way that a game with NPCs as advanced the ones in this one would stay quiet for long, suddenly I was awfully glad that work had agreed to let me take a couple of weeks off. If I was going to stay well enough ahead of everyone else, I would have to really step up my game in terms of levelling.

Not only did I have two weeks off but Soul Core Online had its time compression set at 200% making one day on the outside equal to two in game which meant that I had a full month to make as much ground as possible.

If you had the right VR rig you could stay logged in for over a month and the machine would provide everything you need even allowing you to sleep in game with few side effects. My rig wasn’t quite that good, but it did help my body rest while I was online which meant that I would actually only need around five hours sleep to feel completely refreshed. I still had to log out to eat but that was about it.

Games with a lower level of realism and violence could have a time compression of up to 500% with current technology but early on it was discovered that games that allowed the player to feel pain had multiple side effects. Even if the pain wasn’t real the human brain couldn’t tell the difference and in large battles a player’s brain chemistry would change far too rapidly causing various psychological problems if time compression was set above 200%. Even with that level becoming law for games with a certain level of realism if you died too often not only would you have to suffer through the standard 3-hour lockout that occurred with every death in-game but when you logged back in you would be greeted with a virtual representation of a psychologist’s office. Game companies were required by law to have psychologists on staff due to this very reason.

Upon reaching the market area I discovered that there were thankfully a few stalls still doing business and I quickly parsed through my inventory to find out what I had received from the second Sickly Terror Chick.

“Let’s see,” I muttered to myself. “More meat, beak fragments…hmm?”

Hidden away in my Inventory I discovered something very different to the previous items, which while disgusting was pretty much what one might expect to loot from a dead bird. Even a monstrous one like a Terror Bird.

Terror Chick’s Soul Shard (Crafting Material)

Item Tier (Rarity): Basic (Rare)

A Soul Shard containing a fragment of the essence of a Terror Chick. Can be used to create Soul Cores.

“Huh, Katy is it normal for something like this to appear?” I asked in confusion pulling the item, which looked like a small shard of red crystal. The items description seemed awfully specific for a crafting material taken from a low-level monster.

“You’d have to take it to a Soul Forger to find out,” Katy replied. “I can’t give you information that specific.”

Jeez did someone give my character an ancient Chinese curse or something? It seems that only interesting things were happening to me in this game.

“I take it a Soul Forger is the title for someone who creates Soul Cores then?”

“That’s right,” Katy replied cheerfully.

“Why do I get the feeling that doing anything with this Soul Shard is going to be really expensive?” I muttered to myself ignoring the giggle from Katy that followed my rhetorical question.

First, I decided to sell the alchemical components I had in my Inventory before deciding what to do with the rest of the goods, mostly because I had no intention of becoming an alchemist.

The alchemists stall was one of the smaller ones in the marketplace and was run by a tired looking middle-aged woman whose eyes watched me carefully as I approached.

“Don’t you dare drop monster parts on my bench young man,” she growled pulling out a bowl that looked freshly scrubbed.

Once again, my irritation at my fellow players spiked. I mean really people, who would want things like eyes and gall bladders spread over their bench? This game was way too realistic for that sort of shit.

“Of course, not ma’am,” I replied with a smile, placing the 3 eyes that I had received from the Sickly Terror Chicks into the bowl directly from my Inventory to avoid touching the disgusting things.

The woman whistled slightly as she examined the fleshy orbs seemingly unsurprised my ability to summon body parts out of thin air.

“You’re the first of you outsiders to come to me with ingredients from monsters as powerful as this,” she explained as I looked at her in confusion. “Most of you are still hunting rabbits in the fields west of town and poorly at that from the state of some of the parts I’ve seen.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” I replied wondering briefly what alchemical ingredients one could harvest from a rabbit, I mean rabbits did eat medicinal herbs when they were injured or sick so I guess that there could be some things.

“Yeah, I mostly end up dealing with the dumb ones who expect to get decent coin from plain old grass,” she continued rolling her eyes.

“Grass?” I asked, that was a new low. Sure, there had been some games in the past with different types of grass that had medicinal properties but if there was such a thing in this game you would probably have to have some sort of Gathering Skill to identify it properly.

“Yeah, well they can’t tell the difference between normal grass and the Yellow Root Grass I’m actually looking for yet, so it’s to be expected I guess,” she sighed.

Hearing this I also sighed and shook my head in embarrassment, botany could be difficult enough in the real world but trying to figure out what magical plant was which in a game usually required a skill to help so hearing this was only driving home how arrogant some of the players were in this game.

“I’ll give you 6 copper for these eyes,” she stated tactfully ignoring my reaction to her previous complaint. “They’d be worth more if they weren’t damaged…”

I nodded at this they did look a little worse for wear and 2 coins each was about what I had expected.

“Good, now, may I ask what you’re planning to do with the meat?” she asked suddenly.

“I was going to sell it to a butcher or something,” I replied hesitantly but she shook her head.

“If I were you, I’d take it straight to the inn,” she advised. “I heard a rumor that they’re running low on supplies because of all you outsiders showing up.”

Oh? Could this be perhaps yet another quest? If so, it was probably a normal one that you could repeat. Looks like my reputation around here is helping me out again though…

“Thank you, ma’am,” I replied. “I appreciate the advice.”

She waved me off with a small smile on her face, “Don’t worry about it lad. This is a relatively small village so most of us help each other out around here, and that goes double for the inn.”

I nodded, that made sense, inns were the only places travelers could stay so it made sense that making sure that the inn ran smoothly was especially important in a small village like this one.

Waving goodbye, I headed in the direction of the inn shown on my map and soon found myself outside one of the biggest building I had seen in the game so far. Loud voices came from within revealing to me that the inn also doubled as Ponson’s bar and I shook my head wondering what I’d discover my fellow players up to this time.

As I entered the inn everyone fell silent as they turned to look at me. While most of the people present looked happy enough to see me, a few of them looked considerably less so, especially one I recognized. The player I had encountered in the market earlier that day.

He was sitting at the table with three other people dressed in the familiar shabby clothes that all players were issued with and looked at me unhappily as I walked silently up to the counter and smiled at the man behind it who wiped his sweaty brow with a small cloth nervously.

“Hello sir, what can I do for you today,” he asked looking around the room at the various players who were watching me with expression ranging from anger to indifference.

“I’m here to rent a room,” I replied causing the man’s eyes to widen.

“We do have a couple of rooms still available sir, but I’m afraid that they’re the more expensive ones,” he quickly replied.

I sighed; this was what I got for coming late I suppose.

“How much?”

“1 silver for the night sir,” he replied wiping his forehead again.

Damn, I only had the 6 copper from earlier, I’d have to see how much money he would give me for the meat I had. I really didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to spend the night out on the street with the way some of the other players were glaring at me.

“I understand that you’re running low on food sir, tell me, how much would you be willing to offer for 5 pieces of Sickly Terror Bird Meat?” I asked plastering a smile across my face.

The innkeeper blinked at me in surprise.

“Sickly Terror Bird meat!?” he said in surprise as his eyes started roaming over me, taking note of my poor equipment.

He leaned closer, “Do you really have Sickly Terror Bird Meat?” he whispered looking around the crowded room.

I grinned, “Just name your price,” I replied.

His nervousness disappeared as a crafty look appeared on his face and I had to resist the urge to chuckle, it would seem that a new business opportunity was just what the innkeeper needed to restore his confidence.

“I’ll give you the room for the night and seven copper coins,’ he replied.

I smirked, that was more than I had been expecting for meat from a low-levelled monster, it seems that he was desperate to have more food to sell.

“Is there a meal included in that offer?” I asked.

The innkeeper nodded his head happily, “The deluxe rooms come with both dinner and breakfast, just so long as you’re out before midday.”

“Then you have a deal,” I replied shaking the man’s hand before placing the meat on a tray that he produced from under the bar.

Food for the masses Complete!

Rewards

3 copper coins for each Uncommon ingredient (Meat or Vegetable only) supplied (Rewards increased by two copper coins due to not receiving the Quest first).

New Quest Unlocked!

Food for the masses

(Common Ranked Repeatable Quest)

The Ponson in is running low on food due to the sudden influx of customers. You will be paid for every acceptable cooking ingredient that you supply. (Meat and Vegetables only)

Success Conditions

Supply cooking ingredients to the innkeeper.

Rewards

2 copper coin for every Common ingredient supplied.

3 copper coins for every Uncommon ingredient supplied.

Well, that’s useful but I wonder why it doesn’t mention Rare ingredients. When I asked the innkeeper after he returned from taking the meat that I’d given him to the kitchen he laughed.

“Kid, you can only get Rare ingredients from monsters that are so powerful you wouldn’t even be a snack for them. Besides, if you gave me Rare ingredients in as poor a condition as the ones you just gave me, I’d have to hit you for wasting them!” he replied wiping tears from his eyes.

I nodded at this, what the innkeeper was basically saying was that I would need the butchering Skill for obtaining usable Rare meats or he wouldn’t buy them off me, in fact it was pretty likely that he wouldn’t have paid as much for the meat that I had given him if he hadn’t desperately needed it because of the influx of outsiders. This made sense as I had no idea what would count as ‘Rare meat’ anyway, for all I knew it could come from something that was poisonous so if I messed up, I could kill someone if I fed it to them.

“Fair enough,” I replied holding out my hand for the key to my room, drawing some muttering from the players in the inn who saw it. The key in my hand had a silver tag with the number 2 on it revealing that it was one of the few luxury rooms that could be rented at the inn. Most of the players had used their money to buy new equipment or healing items so they were lucky if they had even been able to afford to rent a normal room.

“Can you deliver my dinner up to my room?” I asked feeling the gazes of the other players on me. It would seem that I was causing a bit of a stir with my actions, although whether the actions in question were the ones just now or earlier in the day was another question and given the looks that I was getting one that I wasn’t about to stick around and ask. The innkeeper nodded happily and gave me directions to the room.

“Thanks,” I said as I turned and walked up the stairs like he had told me to and following the hall to a large wooden door with the number two on it and opening it.

“So,” I said as I looked around the room. “This is what 1 silver gets me for the night huh? Not bad I suppose, but I don’t think I’d like to see what one of the normal rooms looks like.”

The room was clean enough, but the furniture was old, and the walls looked like they could use a bit of TLC. It honestly wasn’t as bad as some of the old hotels I had stayed in over the years, or even my apartment if I was being honest. Well other than the rather obvious lack of modern amenities.

Just then there was a knock on my door followed the voice of a young girl.

“Excuse me sir, I’ve brought you your dinner.”

“Ah, come on in,” I said sitting down at the small table provided.

The door opened slowly to admit a nervous looking girl about my age with long blonde hair holding a tray.

I smiled politely at her as she came in, but she hurriedly put down the tray without saying anything more and left as quickly as she could.

“Well, that was weird,” I remarked to the empty room. Surely, I wasn’t that scary was I. Wait why was I getting annoyed again?

“She seemed afraid of you,” Katy’s disembodied voice noted.

“Yeah, and for some reason that bothers me more than it would normally,” I replied my eyes narrowing as I considered possible reasons for this. I mean my avatar was certainly more intimidating than I was in real life, but that sort of reaction seemed odd.

“Say, Katy, what would the consequences of doing something to a female NPC be?” I asked cautiously. Katy would know better than to take my question the wrong way due to her probably knowing more about me than I did about myself (which was a little creepy), but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

“Hmm, that would depend on a few things, but don’t worry if the other NPCs caught a player doing something, that they shouldn’t be they’d alert the guards in most situations,” she replied her voice sounding angrier than I had ever heard it before as she realized what I was suggesting.

I was more worried about what could happen when other NPCs weren’t around but there wasn’t a lot that I could do about it right now. Especially since I was probably behind the curve in terms of levelling due to my late start.

Sighing I turned my attention to my meal, which looked far nicer than the food I had been eating in real life recently making my stomach gurgle as I remembered that I would have to have my usual dinner of instant noodles tonight when I logged off.

I picked up the brown bun that came with the meal and ripped a piece off dipping it in the rich looking stew and happily popped it into my mouth. A short time later I was staring at the empty bowl with a depressed look on my face. It had indeed been the best thing that I had eaten since I had used up the last lot of rations my parents had sent me and it wasn’t even real.

I even got a buff from eating it that increased my HP by 50 for the next two hours not that I could use it right now, but it was good to know that cooking in this game had a practical use.

Placing the empty tray of food outside the door to my room I laid down on the bed.

“Well, time to log off I suppose,” I said calling up the menu and pressing the log out button.

System Notification

You are attempting to log out in a rented room. If you do not return before you are required to vacate the room, you will appear at the teleport plaza when you log in.

Log out Y/N

I smirked at this, it looks like players wouldn’t be able to cheat the game and stay in their rented rooms until they logged back in.

“Yes,” I confirmed and closed my eyes as the world disappeared in a flash of light.