It’s not that I dislike doing these Journey Quests. I’m experiencing the best story telling in a video game that is probably not even manually crafted by the developers, but it still feels like it was specifically made as a stage in the game. Eseli wanted to eat cake, we found a cake shop, the cake owner let “us” a place to stay over, we then went to the city hall, the city hall issued a town pass but didn’t allow me to meet with the lord-mayor, but they offered another way to meet the lord-mayor, we met the lord-mayor under a different pretext, the lord-mayor turned out to be crazy, we went with him to a cemetery village, we fought the enemy skeletons there only to find out that the lord-mayor wanted us to pose for him so we did that for a long time.

However, it still stings me to know that pretty much all the quests I’ve been doing were Journey Quests and not Petty Quests. Again, Journey Quests don’t suck, and I am glad I’ve done them. I can’t complain about it still I’m still overwhelmed with the awesomeness of the game and its quirks, even if that means traveling takes a long time on foot. But. This is like an unbalanced diet. There is too much sweetness in my mouth that I now want to eat something less sweet or savory instead. I kind of hate it that I happened to these time-consuming activities versus what Krafty and May have probably been doing when they were at the starter town.

Oh well, I guess I can’t complain because I didn’t choose to do the “tea party” activity with Honief. An NPC who is so arbitrary that it’s scary, you never know if choosing a certain dialogue response option will trigger him into anger. And I don’t know if the quest would suddenly end if he’d get angry. The whole point of this activity at the cemetery so that he’d send some guards to a village. The reward isn’t even worth it but I’m doing it anyways since I’ve already come this far. So, I have been talking to him the least as possible since I don’t want to quest to drag on or not matter anymore.

Right now, me and Eseli are walking behind Honief as we all head back into Susana. Honief is holding a painting in his hands that to me looks complete since the canvas is all colored over, but Honief said that it’s just a sketch since I rushed him to finish.

While it’s already the afternoon for me, in this game it’s nighttime. But I know that in an hour or two I’ll already be able to see the sun rising. The location we are in must be somewhere fairly north (or south?) in the latitude of this world or whatever. The environment around me reflects that too, I guess. While the buildings in the town of Susana and Goldflake village look like they come from a northern inland climate Mediterranean place (yes, I know, oddly specific) I think it would be fair to say that the settlements in this region stand out a bit from the wilderness. The nature here is temperate. Right now (summer) it looks like the perfect weather. Fit for a starting region. Lots of green grass and good soil. The trees are very pretty and a mixture of pine and nonpine. When there is farmland, it looks very rich. When there is no farmland, then there is a large expanse of grass. When the trees group up together and form a woodland, then it’s like a fairy forest.

I’ve been imagining how the environment looks like because I remember how it appeared during the daytime, but right now it’s nighttime so I can’t see things in the distance very well. The night is pretty dark looking for a video game. I tried turning up the brightness option higher from the settings menu, but it hasn’t changed the way I see the world very much. Anyways, besides the moonlight which is providing a light blue outline for every surface, there are also a lot of fireflies floating about. Very pretty. I assume the season here must really be summertime, just like how it is in the real world for me. Except for the fact that the sun doesn’t rise as early as it does here. It must also feel very nice outside because I’m constantly seeing Eseli performing the animation of “breathing this air feels so good”, she’s stretching out her arms and chest while expanding and retracting them. I obviously can’t feel this weather… but I think I am jealous.

We’ve now entered the town and are walking on the Main Street, but Honief has turned around to face us for the first time since we left Deadwood.

Honief: “STOP! Just because the guards let you in the town, does not mean I’ll let you into my home!”

MC: “What do we do now?”

Honief: “Are you a child? Need a parent to guide your EVERY STEP? Go, leave me alone! I’m done playing with you two!”

Eseli: “Will you answer our request then?”

Honief: “Request!? Bah! Fine, off with you…stand here!”

What is he talking about?

Oh, he just went over to the nearest guards who were standing across the street and dragged them here towards us. Is this even allowed?

Honief: “You want guards? Here’s three guards! Do with them what you will. For I have better things to do today. Paint. Tax. Paint!”

And he just ran off. Again, is he really a good mayor?

Anyways there are three disoriented looking guards looking at me with confusion.

Guards: “Uh, is there anywhere you’d like us to guide you two? The Lord-Mayor said something about “answering your demands””

MC: “Is it possible for all three of you to station yourselves at a village southeast of here, called Goldflake. They’re worried about possible Marauders endangering their village.”

Guards: “Uhm, we are not in the authority to alter our current assignment and stations. You should speak with the Captain of the Guard; he might know what to do.”

MC: “Okay thank you”

Okay thank you to those guards who have now walked off but not to that Honief! Wait, those guards didn’t even bother to lead me to the Guard Captain… Ugh, so the quest isn’t over yet. That stupid elf was supposed to end the quest by saying “Yes, thank you for helping me out in Deadwood. For that I shall adhere to your request and send guards to protect Goldflake village right away”. Instead, he just ran off!

Let’s see if Eseli has anything to say, or I could ask here something…yes this.

MC: “Do you know where the Guard Captain is at?”

Eseli: “Sadly I do not, but it shan’t be an issue. Let us simply head back to Orana. She likely knows.”

MC: “Yes good idea”

I’ve come back to the place where I started playing the game today at. Madam Pink! Apparently the best and the only cake shop in Susana. I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress, but I at least got to fight those skeletons which was pretty cool. Even though they are the classic RPG skeleton mob, in this game they looked like how you’d imagine one existing in real life.

Oh…speaking of skeletons, Eseli has turned into one as well. Well not really but she has just somehow softly dropped down to the floor as soon as we entered Madam Pink.

Hold on, the door was open. Did Orana forget to close it, or did we say something that I forgot about? Ah never mind, I see light from the kitchen so Orana must be awake still even though it’s the middle of the night.

So, Eseli is sleeping again like how I first found her. She might as well learn how to transform into a house cat and make it easier for me to carry her. I mean, it is just a video game and I doubt she’ll suffer any penalties for sleeping on the floor. But it just feels right to organize things in the right way even though it might not matter. So, I’ll try to carry her upstairs to that room where I first saw her today.

I’m still not a wizard because I am still just relying on my character’s strength. I guess Eseli isn’t very tall either but as a Dwelf I am smaller, so it is reasonably hard to carry Eseli. She didn’t even bother casting a lightweight spell on herself, so even dragging her on the floor is taking a while. But I am moving. My character is basically almost over encumbered. I wonder if Orana’s AI will react to me dragging my companion around on the floor like this…

Huh Orana sure is making a lot of noise in the kitchen. I can’t believe I didn’t notice earlier.

May: “NO KRAFTY! You put too little butter, how do you think the cake will turn out?!”

Krafty: “WHY DOES IT MATTER? You keep telling me this is “just a game”, so as long as the cake is made then it shouldn’t matter!”

May: “Krafty you aren’t going to get far in life if you live with that level of discipline! This is like practice to when you’ll bake a cake in real life, so you can’t get a bad habit of having these crappy ingredient ratios in your mix!”

Krafty: “You’re talking as if I’m planning to get far in life! I don’t care about going far in life or even ever baking a cake in real life!”

May: “That’s your PROBLEM RIGHT THERE Kraftyyyyy! This is explaining so MANY things…lazy cat!”

Krafty: “I’m not a cat! Do you think I look like this in real life? You know how I look like!”

May: “I don’t know Krafty…Eseli might as well be a more real and reasonable person than you are. With better personality too! I can even see here right now! Wait, I actually see her right now- and Amulet…”

Krafty: “Woah I didn’t even notice you there Amulet! Wait- why are you dragging Eseli around? Is-IS SHE DEAD?”

MC: “Nope! She’s not dead. This is just how she sleeps. We were doing a quest and as soon as we entered this shop she decided to fall to sleep right away”

May: “See Krafty, see how realistic Amulet’s companion is? She even is a responsible sleeper.”

Krafty: “And how am I not a responsible sleep-“

MC: “Hang on, what are you two doing here?”

I didn’t expect to see May or Krafty here. How did they enter this shop? Also, this feels a bit weird in a VR game, just casually dragging a person with your right hand while chatting to other people. I’ll put Eseli down on the floor a moment.

More importantly, are they actually baking a cake in game?