As one might expect, even with pain reduced by 50% resetting a broken bone was quite painful. Thankfully once it had been set properly, I didn’t have to deal with the remaining pain for very long thanks to Evie’s healing magic.

By the time Evie had finished healing my leg Fern and Katy had looted the corpses of our most recent victims and had managed to bring in a pretty good haul while doing so. Not only was there the usual meat, feet and skin but they had also managed to find another Soul Shard which they had immediately handed over to me since they knew that I was going to unlock the Core Creation Crafting Skill once I reached Level 5.

“Right, so do we think we can keep going or should we turn back?” I asked looking at the others. “Things got a little hairy for a bit there and we’ll get left behind by the other players again if we get killed. Judging by how difficult this fight was I very much doubt that we’ll be able to handle the Boss right now.”

“True,” Fern agreed. “I vote we head back and train some more.”

The other two glanced at each other before agreeing which made me sigh in relief. That last fight had taken a lot out of me and if we had ended up pushing on, I was pretty sure that we would’ve wiped.

If they had decided to keep going, I would’ve gone along with them. I wouldn’t have been happy about it but in reality, I was only the party ‘leader’ as long as they allowed me to be. Besides sometimes the only way to learn a lesson was by failing, I had learned that lesson many times since I had started playing games and I was sure that I would continue to learn it over and over again in the future.

As we made our way back towards the entrance, I checked how many more Soul Points I needed before my Lightning Magic Core would reach Level 3 and sighed as I saw that I was only a one point short. Even if my Lightning Magic Core had reached Level 3 it wouldn’t have made enough of a difference in my power to make me think that we had any more of a chance of being able to defeat the Boss than we did now. I was really looking forwards to unlocking my Crafting Skills so that I could start making us some more Soul Cores to increase our Stats.

Thankfully we didn’t encounter anything else on our way back to the entrance of the Den and once we were outside, we decided to make a beeline for town. I did tentatively suggest that we take our time a little on our way back so that we could get a little more experience, but the girls had decided that they’d had enough for the day which was fair enough.

When we arrived back in town, we stopped in to see Catherine to drop off the rabbit’s feet that we had collected which allowed Evie to finish the rabbit hunting Quest. Once we were done there Evie requested that we head to the market before everything closed for the night so that we could see about getting her a new weapon which was easy enough to agree to. I estimated that by the time we sold all of our loot we should be able to buy a couple of basic pieces of gear and still have enough left over for some food back at the inn.

As we walked through town Fern volunteered to go and hand over the rabbit meat to Conrad while the rest of us continued on to the marketplace.

“So, are you still keen on the idea of getting a gun?” I asked as Katy, Evie and I walked along.

“Yeah,” she replied. “Why do you think it’s a bad idea?”

“Nope,” I replied with a shrug. “We could definitely use more ranged attacks. Don’t get me wrong you and Katy have both been doing a great job so far but with only four of us fighting larger groups can get a bit dicey without enough ranged support. You know, like it did earlier.”

“Yeah that wasn’t any fun,” Katy agreed shaking her head at the dry tone that I had been using at the end of my previous statement. “We really need to get you some better armour if you’re going to solo monsters as powerful as that Armoured Rabbit again.”

“Agreed,” Evie chimed in. “That was way too close for comfort, even with the extra HP from that Core that you have.”

“Well let’s just get you your gun and a Soul Core for it before we worry about that,” I replied as I groaned internally at the thought of being beaten within an inch of my life like that again. Don’t get me wrong I would do it, but I wasn’t masochistic enough to want to act as the party Tank for any longer than I absolutely needed to. That was more Julian’s thing.

“Cool, I hope I can find something good!” Evie replied excitedly.

“Don’t count on it,” I replied before sighing as I watched her face fall at my words. “Finding decent weapons in shops this early on is all but impossible in most games and even if we did find something there’s no way that we could afford it.”

“Yeah, I know, but did you have to rain on my parade?” Evie grumbled as she kicked a small rock down the street.

“Why are you so keen on the idea of using a gun anyway?” Katy asked as she elbowed me in the gut making me wheeze slightly and rub my bruised ribs dramatically.

“Well I’m not really that good at games but I am a good shot with a gun, so I just thought that it was a good idea,” Evie sighed. “My father used to be a Biathlete and he taught me how to shoot.”

“That explains why you’ve got such good aim,” I mused. “And I don’t think you’re a bad player just inexperienced.”

“Well thanks Zeke,” Evie replied. “I just hope that I can prove you right.”

Once we arrived at the marketplace, I sent Katy and Evie to go and have a look around the weapon stalls while I sold all of the remaining loot that we had collected throughout the day. It didn’t take very long, even rabbit skins were in high demand right now thanks to the players arriving. But I decided to keep some of the armoured plates from the rabbits to see if I could get some armour made from them before heading back towards the girls. I figured that no one would begrudge me that after what had happened earlier and if they did then I could always go sell it later.

By the time I found them Evie had already found a rather strange looking gun that she seemed to be really excited by. It was an odd weapon that looked more like something out of a steampunk game with all of the brass but the most interesting thing about it was the crystal on the end of where the barrel would usually be.

“So, what have you got there?” I asked after sneaking up behind them causing Evie to nearly drop the weapon when she leapt into the air in surprise.

“Holy shit!” she exclaimed loudly as Katy started laughing at her as she had obviously noticed me sneaking up on them. “Don’t do that Zeke!”

I just stood there and grinned at her until she calmed down which didn’t take long as Evie wasn’t the sort of person to enjoy attracting attention like she had when she had shouted at me.

“Alright fine,” she grumbled eventually. “This is a spell-gun, it uses magical energy to fire projectiles much like my wand does.”

“So, what’s so special about it if it basically does the same thing as your wand?” I asked raising an eyebrow at her words. I was actually quite interested in what she Evie had to say now since this was one of the weapons that I hadn’t tried out when I had been in the tutorial. I had seen weapons in other games that had used a similar idea but there was quite a bit of variety in how those weapons worked in different games so it would be interesting to see how Soul Core Online treated them.

“Well in this one you can learn Skills that temporarily enchant your attacks with different elemental effects like fire or ice,” Katy explained making my eyes widen as I understood why Evie was so excited.

“Which would massively increase Evie’s ability to deal damage once she unlocked the right element and because it’s powered by magic not only will she not have to reload it but the Soul Core should provide boosts to her Spirit and Spirit regen,” I said and Katy nodded in agreement.

“It also has a single Slot for a Magic Core sort of like your spellglove,” Katy continued. “I suspect they will become quite popular weapons once people start earning enough money to afford them.”

“So, do you think that I should get it?” Evie asked. “It’s not a weapon that was available in the tutorial, sort of like your naginata so it costs a bit more than a basic pistol would.”

“Don’t worry about that,” I decided. “If we can afford it then we should get it for you. No point in spending money on a weapon that you plan on replacing for something that uses a different type of Soul Core.”

I didn’t think that Fern would have any problems with my decision but if she did then I would just give her some of the money from my share of the loot. Besides, I could see by the pleased look on Katy’s face that she definitely agreed with me which made me feel pretty good. The grin that covered Evie’s face might’ve had something to do with it as well.

“Okay it costs 6 Silver for the gun and another 2 for the Soul Core,” Evie told me which made me feel slightly less happy but I handed the coins over to the vendor who nodded at me and passed over the Soul Core to Katy who quickly placed the small crystalline orb against her new pride and joy.

Despite the fact that the spell-gun had been more expensive than expected, I was quite pleased to know that we didn’t have to buy all of our Soul Cores from a different place. In fact, after talking to the stall owner I discovered that anywhere that sold either weapons or armour always had a couple of very basic Cores to sell along with them like the basic spell-gun Core that we had just bought or the Support Core that I had which boosted my HP. However, if you wanted anything better than that you had to go to a store that specialised in Soul Cores.

After spending the close to 1 gold coin we now had 8 silver remaining in a mixture of copper and silver coins. Most of this had come from the loot that we had sold because the rabbit hunting Quest only made 2 silver which still seemed a bit low to me but then again the rabbits weren’t that tough and it was pretty obvious that this , balanced out by the money you could get from selling the loot.

We could’ve gotten more if I had sold all of the loot, but we had decided to keep some of it for when we obtained our crafting skills and then there was the armoured plates that we had kept so that I could talk to someone about getting some armour made.

It took us a few minutes to find out who to talk to about getting some armour made and by the time we did Fern had joined us with another silver coin from the meat that she had sold to Conrad who had apparently been very pleased with the massive chunks of meat that we had received from killing the Armoured Rabbits. She had even taken it upon herself to order our dinner for tonight which turned out to be a stew made of the Armoured Rabbit meat that we had brought in.

When Evie told Fern that we had bought the spell-gun Fern just nodded happily making me sigh in relief.

“Good that will be a really useful addition to your arsenal,” Fern told Evie before looking at me and nodding to confirm that she thought that I had made the right decision. “So, what are we planning on spending the rest of the money on?”

“Well I have some of the armour plating from the Armoured Rabbits that I want to see if I can get made into a chest-piece,” I replied. “But I don’t know how much that will cost so we can decide then.”

“Okay that makes sense,” Fern agreed. “You need armour more than I do, not that I don’t want any myself.”

“Well like I said; we can make a decision about what we want to spend our money on once we know how much the armour is going to cost,” reminded her. “If we decide that the money is better spent on something else for now then that’s fine. We already paid for my Lightning Magic Core out of our party funds so I’m not too worried about getting any new gear until everyone else does.”

“But on the other hand, you are working as our party’s Tank right now so making sure that you can stay alive is kind of important,” Fern pointed out.

“I don’t plan on staying the tank for much longer though,” I pointed out. “I don’t mind doing it for now, but I don’t enjoy it either so don’t worry about fitting me out with too much extra gear.”

After asking a helpful guard where the best place to get armour made was, we made our way out of the marketplace and walked down the street until we came to the store that he had pointed out. Inside we found a rather rotund looking woman who looked up as we walked in and gave us a wide smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes which narrowed almost imperceptibly. Knowing how some of the other players had been acting I tried not to get too offended by this, but it was pretty clear that she’d had issues lately which wasn’t a good sign. You’d think people would’ve learned by now though.

“Hello dears, how may I help you?” she asked carefully.

“I’d like to get some armour made,” I explained as I slowly walked up to the counter while I looked around at some of the stuff that she was displaying in her shop. There wasn’t a lot of stock here as she also had someone running a stall at the marketplace but what I did see looked like really high-quality gear. I had actually noticed that the armour stall that we had visited earlier stocked items that were made here and had been impressed with the quality of the armour pieces that they were selling. They weren’t as good as the ones that I could see here though. I was guessing that the stall was sort of like the equivalent of an outlet in a department store. Which meant that this was the place where they kept the more expensive items and take on commissions.

“I’d like to get a quote on getting this Armoured Plating that we got from an Armoured Rabbit made into a breastplate,” I told her as I took the surprisingly light pieces of armour out of my Inventory making the woman flinch slightly as her fears about us being outsiders were confirmed.

“I see, what sort of breastplate did you want,” she asked with an almost unnoticeable quiver in her voice.

“I don’t really mind just as long as it doesn’t constrict my movement too much,” I replied giving the woman a reassuring smile that did absolutely nothing to reassure her.

“Alright, um I suppose I could make a very basic chest piece,” the woman muttered as she pulled out a piece of paper and eyeballed me for a few seconds before scribbling a basic sketch onto it before placing it on the counter for me to look at. The drawing showed a very basic piece of armour that had a thick protective piece over my chest but other than that didn’t really look that impressive. That suited me fine, I wasn’t interested in having a piece of armour that looked like it was worth a lot of money at this point in the game and the design seemed to basically be what I was looking for.

“I assume that this is going to be medium armour?” I asked as I looked at the drawing and the woman nodded silently in reply. “Okay it looks pretty much like what I’m after, but I’d like to borrow your quill for a few seconds so that I can give you a few notes.”

The woman silently passed me the quill and I quickly added a couple of notes before placing it back onto the counter.

“So how much do you think this will cost?” I asked as I carefully handed the piece of paper back to her.

“For something like this I’d usually ask for 2 gold,” she replied. “But since you’re providing the materials I can go as low as 1 gold and five silver.”

“Alright is there any chance that I can pay some now and the rest when it’s done?” I asked making her frown slightly.

“How much were you thinking,” she sighed eventually.

“How does 5 silver sound,” I asked after conferring with my party members. “We’d even be willing to pay 2 extra silver when the armour is finished if you agree. We might not be able to get all the money by tomorrow though.”

“What did you say your name was?” the woman asked as she considered my request.

“I’m called Zeke, and my party members are Evie, Fern and Katy,” I replied, and the woman’s eyes snapped up at my words.

“Well then I accept,” she replied. “I’ve heard that there’s an outsider called Zeke who has been helping out the guards and you do fit his description. Don’t let me down Zeke. I’ve had some issues with outsiders ever since you lot arrived, and I’d like to know that you’re not all bad.”

I nodded and handed over the coins that I had promised her. Once again, my reputation and connections had made things easier for us. However, I was still annoyed that outsiders still seemed to have a bad reputation around town.

“Alright then, I’ll make sure to have it done by tomorrow but don’t worry if you haven’t managed to get all the money by then I can hold onto it until you can finish paying,” the woman told me.

“Thanks, we’ll try to get it all by tomorrow but I can’t make any promises so that makes things easier,” I replied as we turned to leave.

“Well that was definitely interesting,” Fern said once we were outside. “You really have a way with people don’t you.”

“Hah!” I chuckled. “You should see me in real life. I’m a mess!”

“Well that doesn’t seem to be the case here because you handled that rather well,” she pointed out. “And I don’t know you outside of the game so…”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged. “I’m getting really tired of being treated badly because I’m an outsider, sorry I mean player though.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that a lot of stall owners have had issues with players stealing from their stall in the marketplace, so I’m not surprised that the locals don’t seem to like us much,” Fern nodded surprising me by using the NPC’s name for players like us. “I am disappointed though.”

“Yeah, there seems to be a lot of that sort of thing going around,” I sighed. “Hopefully everyone who has been causing problems will get caught soon. They’re causing a lot of problems for people who just want to play the game. Don’t get me wrong now, in any other game I wouldn’t judge them for acting the way that they are, but this isn’t like most games. The NPC’s may be AI’s but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t people in their own way.”

“Yeah, anyway what are we going to do next?” Evie asked before we could continue down that rabbit hole.

“I think that we should go back to the marketplace and see if we can find something that one of you want,” I replied. “I know, I know; we need the money to pay for my armour, right?”

Fern whose head had snapped up at my words flushed slightly in embarrassment but nodded.

“Well that’s why I made sure that I didn’t have to pay the rest of the money by tomorrow and only paid 5 silver instead of all of our remaining money,” I chuckled. “I’ve already mentioned that I feel uncomfortable about spending so much of the money that we’ve all earned on me. Besides one of us getting new gear makes the whole party stronger which will make it easier to earn money. Not that we’ll be able to get anything that will make a massive difference though.”

“Alright that’s fair I guess,” Fern sighed. “Well let’s go have a look I suppose.”

When we arrived back at the marketplace we looked around for anything that could be useful for Fern or Katy for a few minutes before eventually deciding on a hooded cape for Fern, it didn’t provide very much protection but according to Katy it was an essential item for someone who wanted to specialise in stealth techniques.

As we headed back to the inn, we talked about what we were going to do tomorrow. I had training with the guards first thing, and I had already promised to talk to Harmon about the others joining us so that would take up most of the morning. I suggested that we go and finish off the Rabbit Quest after that before heading to the area where I had fought the Terror Chicks on the first day. I was a lot stronger now and with help from the others we should be able to finish up the Quest before heading back to town to sell all of our loot and turn in for the night.

The others agreed with this loose schedule which left me thinking about how we now had to pay back someone for their services and perform a service for someone else because of me. I owed my party members a lot for putting up for this and I could only hope that their faith in me was justified.

Still by the time that we had finished eating and chatting, mostly about Evie’s new weapon and the Skill and Stats that the Soul Core had given her. The Skill was essentially the same as the one that she had because of her wand which made sense as that seemed to be the way this game worked, you get a basic cut and paste Skills that you found in almost every fantasy game first first and then more and more complex and unique Skills as you increase the Level of your Soul Cores. The Stats that the Soul Core had given her were also about what we had expected; a single point in both Intelligence and Dexterity.

All things considered today had gone rather well and we all retired for the night about an hour after we had finished eating our dinner. Once I was in my room I logged out and went about the business that my flesh and blood body required before deciding to go to sleep in my bed instead of my Rig for a change. By the time my head struck the pillow I was already asleep.