(Joat’s POV)

DISEASE: Cold

You have contracted a cold

Effects: -1 stamina regen

And that’s what I get for logging out outside the gates then…

Agh Daren and all of those lot, how could they leave me in those hills after all we did together? Actually I can completely believe they’ll leave me there, well most of them.

-1 reputation to those 3 who I actually had faith in.

Though on the bright side I learnt 2 more defensive skills:

COMBAT SKILL: Block, Beginner [lvl1] (0%)

Blocking is the ability to stop the enemy attack with your weapon

Blocking reduces damage by 1%

Additional damage reduction based on weapon equipped

Cost: 5 stamina, Duration: sustained, Cooldown: none

Finally, I deserved this one a lot earlier with the shield beatdown…

COMBAT SKILL: Deflect, Beginner [lvl1] (0%)

Deflection is the skill to redirect an attack away from you with your weapon

Upon successful deflect:

Redirects attack mitigating damage

May cause opponent to stumble

Cost: 10 stamina, Duration: instantaneous, Cooldown: 2.4 seconds

Still finding it weird how deflect and parry are different but then again parrying requires me to attack the opponent whereas deflect merely redirects it...so I guess not much parrying can be done with a shield.

I also got myself an actual attack skill too form so much flailing around:

COMBAT SKILL: Charging Power Attack {Mace} Beginner [lvl1] (0%)

Charging power attack is an attack using both momentum and strength to deal immense damage

Deals 100%-200% weapon damage dependent on charge time

May cause opponent to stumble

Charge time: up to 5 seconds

Cost: 25 stamina, Duration: instantaneous, Cooldown: 2.4 seconds

It’s pretty good doing 200% damage, especially as that’ll increase as I use it more. Ooh it’s exciting to see how much it will go up each level.

Ok so although I did mostly waste a day in the hills bashing up rock giants…but I did learn a few system things about Npc’s AND more importantly learnt some skills!

And now….well a hot meal would be a good start, some form of treatment against this cold.

“Morning”

“Monster”I really need some positive global reputation.

Walking through the morning streets of the city I get a lovely reception from all the humans and beastpeople who decide some early morning verbal abuse is a great way to start their day.

Heading into the Adventurer’s guild…I swear all these Npc’s do is drink. I haven’t seen a single one on an adventure anywhere.

Anywho.

“Wendy I implore you, may you please tell me where I can get some hot food and drink that isn’t rations?” No offense to the Adventurer’s guild or anything but you guys do not know how to cook food.

The cute fox-beastlady from behind the counter stops chatting with Rushanne and gives me that well-practiced friendly smile of hers.

“Sure, there’s 4 inns in town: The Ramshackled Rogue, The Dirty Duck, The Gallant Goose and Artisans Ales, all of which are located in the Artisan District. If you’re looking for a good price the Ramshackled Rogue is where you want to be but for quality Artisans Ales is recommended. The Dirty Duck and Gallant Goose are the most popular however Dirty Duck has gotten some rather impeccable service so I hear.”

Well I’ve got literal pockets full of gold so there’s nothing wrong with splashing a little bit of cash…plus gold in The Ramshackled Rogue doesn’t seem like a good idea. But something else is on my mind too.

“Thank you Wendy”

Right off to the Dirty Duck then…since impeccable service is always a good thing.

Heading through the packed streets, noticing one sad empty stall where that poor fur trader was, I enter the Artisan District for the second, maybe third time now.

Ah, everything looks new and well kept. There’s even a visible structure to the place too: One mahoosive circular plaza with an unbroken chain of buildings surrounding it. In the centre are 3 buildings back to back in a triangle.

This place is the best; big, wide, easy to see everything and no getting lost in the maze of houses.

As I walk around the circle to find my chosen inn, I take a mental note of all the buildings there; either they’re a craftsman guild of some sort or the respective workshop. There’s even a small Pharmacists guild along with a pharmacist. Different from an apocathery apparently but I will find out why later. Ooh, I’m excited.

Aha an inn! And it’s the Dirty Duck too! Right next to an apocathery if I do something stupid like over-inebriate myself…which wouldn’t be too hard to get to with the amount of money I have.

Waltzing inside oh hello Nerisp.

“Joat, welcome to the Dirty Duck there’s a free seat by the bar” Perfect

Apparently the place is chocked full of people and at 9 in the morning too. Jeesh don’t these town people have anything to do? Well I guess since they’re having breakfast that’s alright.

Sitting down on the wooden stool, I eye up the bartender: A green and brown duck beast-man cleaning a wooden tankard with a rag.

“Quackllo there sir, what would you like to drink, quack” He’s really high pitched, like a duck!

“One of every ale you have, I’m in the mood of experimenting”

“Quackrighty” He pours me a tankard of ale from the leftmost barrel that sits on the back wall.

Passing me my drink, I swivel round to have a better look at the place. Eugh bitter. It’s like most game inns would look like: dark wood walls with many round tables littering the place, some chairs alone by the fireplace. There even are wenches serving the customers…but a majority of them are the fish-sisters.

Scaled women in medieval maid outfits do look pretty good mind you and are only second to the busty red-haired barmaid who skirts around with some beautiful physics. She even leans over for the customers who are extra kind to her, hmm I guess this society isn’t as anti-use-your-feminine-charm as ours.

But then again this is technically the medieval era, gosh I can’t wait to find out how things like marriage works here.

Anywho, the service seems extremely good and the fact that this place is packed to the brim truly shows that.

Eugh right, black ale isn’t nice at all…down the hatch it goes.

“Bartender is there any chance the cook is still doing breakfast oh and refill with another ale please”

“Quackaway”

Hmm by the looks of it, slightly less bitter but still quite strong drowning out any sort of other taste there could be. But from the looks of the people in the inn, these must all be members of the artisan guilds and shops in this district.

I smell opportunity, also the bartender’s being decently nice to me considering.

…Reputation -3 with him, so there’s definitely some unseen factors.

Actually let’s identify everyone! Ugh I’m going to have to get a better ale with my food that’s for sure.

…

8 Tables filled with 6 people each, 4 seats by the fire and 8 seats by the bar.

Tables were occupied with the Blacksmith’s guild, Pharmacist’s guild, Leatherworkers guild and Tailor’s guild. The Blacksmith’s and Leatherworkers each took up 3 tables respectively, with a few members being familiarish faces. I actually found out what guild they’re from due to the little badge they all wear on their clothes.

Apparently seeing and recognizing that added the titles section to the information when identifying with the respective title mentioning their guild.

Sitting around the fire are some old times from the agricultural guild. That’s a thing somehow. Well fair enough I guess there’s no harm with a farming guild, only more skills to learn!

The bar however, is the most interesting place since it is where all the odd lonely people are: Me, Some pompous golden-haired man from the musician’s guild who took the seat over on the far left, booting a rather unhappy fellow away. Also are one adventurer heavily cloaked and sipping milk, a quiet but well dressed fellow sipping his milk and reading a book of which I cannot read the name since it’s in a different language…ooh. The people on the right side of me are a tiny gnome female with bright pink hair and a worn dress drinking milk, dwarfed by a large muscle-ripped orc who also drinks milk. Seriously what’s with all these milk drinkers? And another Monster, cool! Past them is a strong jawed human with slicked back black hair and what almost passes for a tailored suit. He is sat next to a SirStripy, the conversation seemly neverending. At least those two are drinking like me.

None of them (except the one pompous bard and SirStripy) have any solid info on them, except their base damage and armour but even that isn’t very realistic I’m guessing. I can’t even see anything but ??? on the hooded fellow, so of course they’re all mildly interesting.

But before that, breakfast and served by a lovely Neriser(?).

Mmm that smells good. Sausages with bacon, potatoes, tomatoes and even eggs. Huh was having a slight worry there’d be something against using eggs. Also this looks like an English breakfast…

“Excuse me bartender” Waiting until he refills the people’s milk glasses “Could I inquire as to who the new cook is? Also a refill from another barrel please”

“The cook is the same as always but the breakfast is new, brought over by my lovely new wenches over there” He plops a newly filled tankard with oak brown liquid inside, going back to work.

As always the mystery meats are surprisingly delicious, slightly worried as to what it could be but if it tastes good don’t complain. Plus I think my cannibalism would go off if it was hobgoblin, and there’s no way it’d actually be human so I’m pretty safe as far as I’m concerned.

Enjoying breakfast fully, let’s get to conversation.

“So Little miss, what brings you out to Shoala?” First off is the little gnome since she might be a little bit more talkative than mr hooded over left-side.

“Mistress to you and none of your business” She shoos me away, well that didn’t work as expected

“Forgive me I was simply making lonely conversation as a Monster and all”

“Ah…” She looks at the orc “Well I may have been a bit hasty in my speech, I am not a morning person afterall” A whole 180 after playing the Monster card, so they two of them are acquaitances at least.

“Your problem is your choice of beverage, nothing wakes you up like the bitter kick of some ale, or for ones with better taste buds a fruity tingling glass of wine”

“I drink milk because the water here is gross and alcohol does not sit well with the brain” She acts quite high and mighty for something so small

“That’s the point, it’s supposed to loosen your inhibitions and make you act instead of just sit and think, we call it Dutch Courage”

“Kartihanan? What do you mean by that?” Whoops forgot some things don’t translate.

“Alcohol is in a way courage, inspiration, the pushing force someone needs to get something done is what I’m trying to say”

“You can do it yourself if you try” Oh how truly naïve

“Look around the room and find yourself someone who you’d want to share the night with, or confess your desires to” I quickly right myself as I spot her blushing like a tomato. Well guess that ticks off one thing about her.

“But what purpose does this have?”

“It doesn’t have to have a purpose, have you found someone?”

“I guess”

“Good, now tell me, would you right now go up to them?”

“No, why would I do that, that’d be stupid” Tone down the blushing please, you’re literally redder than the remaining tomato on my plate

*Gulpgulpgulp*

“ahhhh, Wwell you like the person don’t you? And you don’t have the courage enough to go tell them? That is what this is for” I tap my tankard.

She isn’t wrong in thinking you can just do it, but in reality most people can’t due to irrational fears of rejection. Also alcohol gives you an excuse if they do say no. Being drunk really is a widely used excuse for a lot of things, not completely wrong but it should be taken with a pinch of salt.

“I see…but as I said before it would be stupid to do it”

“Ah that is where you’re wrong, the most stupid thing a person can do is nothing, and speaking of nothing, I plan to finish this breakfast before it gets cold so, to learning new things” I raise my tankard and finish it off. At least the bitterness is numbing now “Refill please bartender”

“…And for me too please, the same barrel” Oho, seems like she’s got intentions.

*ding*

Congratulations! Through constantly influencing over 100 others to do things different from their usual manners or views you have gained a title.

TITLE: Influencer

You are highly influencing in other people’s decisions and may even change their overall views on the way things are

This title gives some in-game bonuses.

For gaining this title your communication and Eloquency stats will increase by 5 each. If these stats are unused the additional points will be added once the stat is active.

+10% to Eloquency and Communcation stats When influencing someone’s decision

Xp increases by 25%

Nice another title! Also I guess leading gives you a ton more benefits than people first see. I might have to be constantly leading to get all these delicious titles, skills and stats.

The bartended comes back with 4 more tankards of ale. 4? Well, one for me, one for the gnome, one for the orc I guess…who else?

The cloaked figure next to me? Really? Well join in the drinking and hopefully becoming an extrovert and actually talk to us, that’d be interesting.

Hmm suddenly it’s a little bit sweeter, and the colour is more of a coppery maroon, mmm I quite like this one.

Before I notice it, the inn empties out, leaving me and the bar people remaining.

*Strum*

“Ahem, ahem. From the blood of Cortusha and the fires of Karan, the devil of Sanshan was born from a lamb”

And so begins the barding of one pompous man. His voice is actually really nice though and the lute playing is pretty good. If only he wasn’t a complete ass of a person.

*gulp*

Ahh, until I get my alcoholic title this is what I’m going to be spending my day doing, learning how to become a bard through observation…which is going to be hard since my eyesight fares even worse when tipsy.

…

“I’m a cartographer” Huh, who what oh, the little gnome miss…who is flushing pink, not from embarassement though.

Wait she’s drunk off of one tankard? Jeez even for the tiny being that’s under-impressive…but at least I get conversation out of her, and useful useful knowledge.

“So you came to Shoala for what exactly? I mean I came here to join the adventurer’s guild”

“Pah adventurers, smashing up everything within sight the buggers and killing all the beautiful monsters in the world. No I’m here to create a map, a map of the world INCLUDING the unexplored zones”

“That’s a lot of work and a lot of travelling”

“Oh tell me about it, day in and day out walking around drawing maps, getting lost, starving and sleeping on the cold hard ground. I just want a comfy feathered pillow with a puffed cover filled with Eljchmarz feathers”

“Eljchmarz?”

“Commoners, I forget you know nothing. Eljchmaaarz are” She takes a gulp from her newly refilled tankard. I think she’s going to be on the floor soon at this rate. “Massive, like maaassive birds which are pets for us, much more healthy than dogs or cats or whatever else commoners try to pass as a household pet. Plus they have healing powers. They’re soo cool”

Actually yes, I want one of these things, they sound pretty comfy if nothing else.

“And so on his mother’s grave did he diiieeEEEE” Oh he’s finished with round 1.

*snap*

“Bartender if I am going to listen to that depressive drollop do you have something a lot stronger than milk?” The young, clean shaven human with mid-length brown hair, mostly covered by a travelling cap, had snapped his book shut and was grinning jokingly towards the bartender, his intentions obvious.

I like this guy already

“I have ale, wine, spirits”

“Tell me where is the wine from?”

“human make of course, but if you’re willing to spend, I do have some old Treeroot elvish make in the back”

The grin grows wider “I’ll have a bottle of some Treeroot since wine is to be delighted not just drunk. And seven glasses please”

7? Guess he’s sharing then, I think he’s got a friend in me.

“Everyone, how about we transfer to the table, so we can at least try to drown out the wailing of that man with some conversation” hehehe.

Transferring over to a nearby table, the boisterous young fellow sits to my right and the cloaked figure to my left. Next to him is the already drunk Gnome and her Orc friend. Seems like SirStripy and his new friend are too busy chatting to actually come over yet. Well more wine for us.

Nerisp comes over, working on her hip swaying I see. Well for such a lithe figure it’s quite difficult to pull off and she isn’t yet. Placing the dusty bottle and multiple wine glasses down, she expertly pours it with one hand, even twisting the bottle at the end. Ah the sign of someone who knows how to pour properly.

“Well then my fellow people, before I introduce myself I should introduce this fine wine. Treeroot, made as the name suggests from the root of a certain tree within the Elvish forests, the taste is for you to experience” He raises a glass and begins sipping it.

Mmm god this is actually good wine. Jeez yum it’s like fruity truly fruity, almost like strawberry juice but with a slight zing to it.

Might get myself a bottle for the journey, or two, or three, I mean it’s probably going to be a while until I find a good wine, plus it’s the first time I’ve actually enjoyed alcohol beyond bearable.

The collective sound of statisfaction echoes around the table.

“Mmm why you were drinking ale before Mister hobgoblin I don’t know” The drunk gnome points at me accusingly.

“Because wine gives bad headaches when drunk passionately and the name is Joat”

“Really?” Wow it’s like she’s never drunk before…probably likely. “Really?” She turns to the Orc who just shrugs his shoulders.

“Yes little mistress wine is to be consumed lightly for the flavor” Wine-loving man really does like his wine “I am Corry by the way, explorer of this land and a poet in the making”

“Hey I’m the explorer” The gnome chick wags her finger once more

“We can both be explorers miss….?”

“Lagbolt, Trish lagbolt”

“Well Trish here’s to exploration” He raises his glass and watches her gulp hers away…which is the equivalent of us sipping. Hey Corry’s enjoying this, I can see by his smile.

“Blood over the ill, spilling like the rain”

“And who may your companion be?” He verbally jumps onto the Orc. Corry’s quite a talkative one, I might actually sit back and just enjoy this.

“Kruush. Good wine” He tips the rest into Trish’s emptying glass. Hmm guessing he’s like a bodyguard or something, staying relatively sober.

“Perfect but please have some more since Trish will not be going anywhere anytime soon might as well enjoy the taste” He pours some more wine for Kruush. Oh that’s a second bottle, where’d that come from?

Oh there’s Nerisp, Aiag didn’t even notice her, awesome. And she’s refilled my tankard with a straw-like ale too.

“Nightbird” Oh my he speaks! And what’s with the name

“That is a fantastic name sir, and what brings you to Shoala”

“I…just sort of came here” Wow, genuinely that’s my answers too…

“And you two, come over!” He signals for the two budding friends to come join, which they do, probably since he’s offering good wine.

“SirStripy good sir, a pleasure to make acquaintance with one of such good taste”

“Likewise, er Corry was it?” The tailored man staggers over, holding a large dark brown tome. “Ahem, hello my name is Derek and I will be your defender of your rights, your life and of course your money. Under the light of Pholtus I shall take your case no matter how severe or lost it seems and I shall bring you light and freedom… at a price of course. Thief! Rogue! Cheat some call me but those are harsh words, I am a Lawyer; I shall pursue justice in the courts of the divine and the wicked and shall have you walk free…this I guarantee as long as the price befits my liking. Worry not if you have killed or kissed where it is forbidden for under me, the Dashing Derek, you shall be unchained and walked into freedom…with a lighter purse for of course a grave sin must be graced with a heavy purse. Do not hesitate to plea for me for Pholtus will hear and Cast his lawful protection upon you.”

…

..

.

He’s even got little business cards with a mailbox address whatever that is.

I mean since this is a magical world I expect to meet some strange people…but a lawyer? I am confused out of high hell.

“Pholtus? You’re raving mad Sir, who in the name are you talking about? I demand your head for such proclivities” Gnome is on her feet wagging her finger drunkenly at him

“Hey Joat” SirStripy distracts me of the midget situation that is somehow being defused by Kruush and Derek.

“SirStripy” Damn saying his name without slurring isn’t easy.

“Ah so you are infamous Joat. Here have three, you’ll need them with all the stories I have heard” Great, thanks, beautiful first impression Derek. If I ever get falsely accused of rape again or do something like burn a village down in order to save it I’ll give you and Pholtus whoever that is a call.

“Joat I feel like there’s many a story you need to regale us with” Corry’s eyes glint.

“Well I would, but the way I tell them is rather dull and unpoetic, could you show me the ropes?” I mean any chance to learn a new skill!

“Gladly sir, but first, we must get rid of this nusciance. Wench, a shot of a tasty spirit, 2 for each member, though none for the little miss” Who is currently drowning herself in wine, and Kruush is wiping the small amounts of spillage. More like a manservant then?

“Nerisp, another refill too please and make it three for Nightbird”