“We found all of these in a cave infected by some rather nasty insects,” Mark responded. “Why?”

“Because I made it. You can see my mark on the hilt.” He pointed to the base of the knife where a stamped sign could just be seen. “Where was the cave?” The blacksmith sounded more curious than demanding and so Mark replied.

“A good two days walk upstream. There’s not much left in the cave now except bones as we burned the insects out.”

The blacksmith nodded. “So, all these blades together are worth about four golds, or I can exchange them for items worth up to five golds.”

“We have plenty of blades at the moment, so we shall take the money if you don’t mind. Can you tell us where we can get clothes, food and whether there is an assayer in the village?”

The blacksmith was helpful, and Mark tucked the money into his bag before they headed off to get food. Clothes were obtainable at a shop almost the other side of the village and there was no assayer.

Just before they left, Mark asked why the villagers acted so incurious towards them. “It doesn’t pay to be curious to strangers, some of them will kill you if you as much as get in their way. There’s a term they use for us, and they almost always say it with contempt. They call us enpeasies and most of those that do dress like your group.

As they walked towards the food shops, they mused over the discovery that other players were around and treating the people harshly.

“If this is just a game then it seems like it would be a foolish move to harm the NPC’s.” stated Mark.

“What do you mean?” Emily asked.

“Well in most games you get quests and training from the NPC’s. Upset them and your reputation will go down and you won’t get the training or quest. That should be obvious to anyone.”

“You get people who look down on everyone else in the real world.” Kajal commented. “They’re only going to be more obnoxious with people they think are their programmed inferiors.” The small man sounded bitter.

“Well let’s hope if we need to have someone help us that they won’t judge us by who has gone before. Right are we going into all the food shops together or someone for each?” Mark asked.

“Let’s stick together, “said Emily. “We don’t know what everyone likes yet and we’ll need to shop based on what’s available. Let’s start with the baker.”

The alluring smell of baked goods wafted from the nearby shop. Even though they weren’t planning to leave until the next day it seemed prudent to put an order in beforehand and choose themselves some cakes for their lunch at the same time.

Eventually after visiting the butcher and the store that sold pretty much everything for an expedition, they had decided what they needed and ordered sufficient to last them for twice the length the journey should take them to their next destination. A larger town about a week away. They had also been joined by Mike and Jo who were both smiling a lot. They made their way to where they could get clothes. Everyone needed more.

The seamstress who ran the shop looked at the group of them and asked “are you sure you want clothes from here? They will be very basic.”

Mark had already talked to the others and thought that fitting in more with the locals would be a good idea. The villagers might interact more, and they were less likely to have issues with criminals if they didn’t stand out. Even so, he was concerned that the members of the party that carried weapons, had ones that looked expensive and that could be a problem.

“Yes, we would be appreciative of more clothes.” Mark said. “In particular we would like some warm and long cloaks but if you have anything else that will fit or can be ready for tomorrow, we are interested.”

The seamstress had clothing hanging on rails and pegs and had piles of clothes all around the shop. The prices were surprisingly cheap for stuff that was all hand-made. She measured everyone in the group and directed them to clothing that would fit. Unsurprisingly the more average sized people in Mark and Emily had the least choice whereas the smaller and the larger people had a better choice. There was a set of clothes that would fir Mark perfectly, but they were a much better quality of cloth, and he would stand out from the group if he wore them. It did get some joking comments from the others when he modelled the shirt and trews.

With a lot of discussion and a certain amount of playfulness they settled on their clothing needs. They ended up spending slightly less than they had earned from the sale of knives but the cost of food and the stay at the hotel meant that they were making a nett loss at the village. They left the seamstress who promised to have the clothing they had ordered ready by early the next day.

With all the shopping done, they had the rest of the day to be idle. With their purchases from the bakery, they headed out of the village and into the local woodland. They found a glade and sat and just chatted. It was the first time they were really relaxed together, and everyone was smiling and joking. Even Kajal came out of his shell a little and told some stories about his job as a taxi driver. Mike followed with stories of his time as a bouncer. Between the two of them they had enough humorous tales that they kept the party entertained for quite a while.

Whilst they talked, Julius pranced around the glade. He pounced on insects that easily eluded him but then caught a small rodent which he presented to Emily. She praised his hunting ability, which Mark thought might be rash, unless she wanted a steady stream of dead rodents. Squirrels darted around the glade and seeing them Charlie drew one of their knives and threw it in an attempt to kill the squirrel but like Julius with the insects, the squirrel easily fled the blade.

Charlie started to treat this as a challenge and drew more knives from around their clothing. However, their throws were not particularly accurate, and the squirrels were extremely nimble. Or to phrase it a different way. Charlie completely failed to get a knife anywhere near their target.

Mike decided that it looked fun throwing knives and try to hit squirrels or ‘those bushy tailed tree rats’ as he called them. Even though none of them had been drinking, Mike was just as bad at knife throwing as Charlie. Jo and Emily who both habitually kept throwing knives on them were less inclined to target the squirrels but did then select a tree stump as a target and took turns getting all their knives sticking into the target whilst each turn moving further away. Mark noticed that Emily spun the knives as she threw, whereas Jo threw them without spin. They were both effective. Kajal declined to have anything to do with the weapons, whereas Mark joined the duo targeting the stump but was only accurate over a range of up to one and a half spins.

Julius on the other hand thought that targeting the squirrels was totally appropriate. He didn’t try to chase them like he had the insects but instead just stood alertly and completely still in the shadows and waited. When a squirrel came near, he let it get closer and closer and then with one swift swipe from his front paw he sliced into the squirrel in much the same way as his mother had done with the deer. The squirrel was killed instantly, and Julius ate some of it before bringing the rest of the carcass over to Emily.

Emily praised his hunting skills and made a fuss of Julius. She also field dressed the squirrel, making sure to bury the rest. “I’ll see if they can your kill into a meal.” She told the kitten. Nobody objected and Charlie and Mike got more ribbing for not being as good at hunting as Julius. Any suggestion that nature had designed Julius to be good at hunting was met with comments about how they were adults and Julius was practically a baby.

Eventually they made their way back to the inn. Emily spoke with the staff about cooking the squirrel and they were assured that it would be done. When their meal arrived later that evening, they learnt to their cost that squirrel was not the tastiest of meats and that if they were ever going to eat it again it would probably be best served as a stew where the other ingredients hid the flavour!