by Alex Mulder
You didn’t mess things up:). I’m just confused by it all…
“I didn’t take you for much of a texter.” Emily had reappeared in the doorway, holding a pitcher of lemonade and two glasses. She walked over to the table that was over to the side of the porch and sat down.
“Oh, uh…” Luke scratched his head. “I’m just… checking in with a friend.”
“Is it… a male friend, or a female friend?” Emily asked the question casually enough, but Luke couldn’t stop himself from being a bit curious at her interest.
Why does she want to know?
He walked up and onto the porch and took a seat at the table. Emily was sitting across from him, watching him with her dazzling green eyes.
“It’s a female friend,” said Luke.
“Ah. I see.” She leaned back in her chair, looking a little disappointed.
Did I say something wrong?
“Are you here to help, Luke, or make small talk with my sister?” Ben had poked his head around the corner of the house and glared at the two of them.
“Sorry,” said Luke. “I should probably get to work.”
“It’s okay,” said Emily. “You go ahead.”
Luke paused for a moment before heading down the steps and joining Ben in the yard. He felt a powerful impulse to find an excuse to talk to Emily more, to spend more time with her, and…
And what?
“Alright, so you get started on the leaves.” Ben pushed a rake into Luke’s hands. “And I’ll take a crack at the hedges.”
“Sure thing,” said Luke. “With both of us working at it, this shouldn’t take too long.”
It only took Luke a couple minutes of raking for his enthusiasm to begin to fade. The yard was in worse shape than he had thought, with small rocks hiding in the grass, kicked up by cars from the road.
“Dude, it looks like it’s been an eternity since anyone has done any lawn care here,” he yelled to Ben. “What gives?”
Ben was busy snipping away at the hedges with a large pair of metal clippers.
“It’s just how it is. It’s only been me and Emily here for, well, a pretty long time. We make it work, but some things end up falling by the wayside.”
Luke glanced back over at the porch. Emily was sitting in a chair, holding an open book in one hand and a glass of lemonade in the other. She took a slow sip and flipped the page.
“She really looks out for you, doesn’t she?” asked Luke. Ben nodded.
“More than my parents ever have,” he said. “You must know how that is.”
Yeah, I know all too well.
Luke swung the rake hard against the ground, sending a couple of leaves scattering toward the pile that he’d started.
It took them a little over two hours to finish with the raking and hedge clipping, and another half hour after that to get the lawn trimmed. Luke and Ben alternated on and off with the old push mower, and by the time they’d finished, they were both tired.
“Perfect!” exclaimed Emily. “You guys did a really nice job!”
“Why weren’t you helping us out, sis?” asked Ben.
“Have you ever helped me clean the kitchen? Or the bathroom?” She smiled in good humor and passed each of them a full glass of lemonade. Luke’s fingers brushed up against hers as he took the glass, and he felt a rush of heat.
Easy, now…
“Let’s get to it, then,” said Ben. “Or have you forgotten, Luke?”
Luke shook his head.
“Yeah, we have more grounds keeping work to do in-game.” He paused as he spoke, wondering if Emily was going to say anything about the two of them playing Yvvaros, especially given how seriously they’d started taking it. She didn’t.
“I’ll be in my room if you need me,” said Emily. She smiled at the two of them and then headed back inside and upstairs.
“She left her book down here,” said Luke. “What exactly is she heading up there to do?”
The question came across in a slightly more intrusive manner than he’d intended. Ben shrugged and looked a little uncomfortable.
“It’s none of our business, really,” he said. “Maybe she’s secretly a gamer like us?”
I somehow doubt that.
“Come on,” said Luke. “Let’s get set up.”
The process of unpacking his laptop, connecting the headset to it, and getting in-game was becoming much more familiar to Luke. He sat on the side of Ben’s bed as he pulled on his headset and typed in his login information.
“Ready?” asked Ben. Luke nodded and then pressed play. The launcher paused for a moment, and an update bar appeared along the bottom.
“Hmmm, I guess they’ve released the second patch,” said Luke. “This might take a-”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was pulled back in-game. It was a little jarring, almost like stepping into an intense waking hallucination.
PATCH NOTES: Zones 000-050 rebalanced for early game play. Drop rates for Level 1 quest items have been increased.
Luke was standing in the middle of Stark Town, right where he had logged off the night before. He looked around the town square and spotted Silverstrike bounding out of the tavern down the road. The jogged over and met up with each other, clasping hands in greeting as though they hadn’t already spent most of the day together in the outside world.
“Those patch notes were interesting.” Silverstrike crossed his arms and looked off into the distance. “I guess they figured out that the realism and difficulty were scaring players into staying around Stark Town.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” replied Luke. He thought a bit about the fight with the Dunidan the day before, and how difficult it had been for an early level encounter.
I can’t say that I’m all that surprised, honestly.
“We should start thinking about setting up a proper guild hall,” said Silverstrike. “If we look around town, we can probably find a merchant that has what we need to get started.”
Luke nodded.
“That sounds like a good…” He trailed off, noticing that there was a level up icon in the corner of his screen.
Oh yeah, I ended up logging back on last night..
He went through the level up menu in his journal, assigning his skill points to officially become a Level 5 character.
“Are you ready?” asked Silverstrike.
Luke smiled at him.
“Beyond ready. Let’s go.”
The sky over the Inner Plains was crystal clear and picturesque. It was a deep azure blue, and the way that it contrasted with the green of the gently rolling hills was breathtaking.
Stark Town was even more crowded than it had been the day before. Luke had to keep an eye on Silverstrike just for the two of them to stay together. They thread their way through various adventuring parties and solo players all rushing by them to get to their destinations.
“I hope the merchant we’re looking for is down on the continent,” said Silverstrike. “Otherwise we’ll have to take the rune circle back up to Kantor.”
“There’s got to be one nearby.” Luke jogged forward, feeling as though he was starting to get a sense of the layout of the town.
The marketplace was in the center of Stark Town, along with all of the other important buildings like the Inn, the smithy, and the general store. They slowed as they neared the market and took in the local activity.
A couple of players had set up their own shops in the square. One of them waved to Luke and Silverstrike, a man dressed in expensive looking clothing, standing next to a horse-drawn cart laden with supplies.
“What are the two of you looking for?” asked the merchant. Luke looked over at Silverstrike before replying.
“We’re trying to build a guild hall,” he said. “Do you have anything that would let us hit the ground running?”
The merchant thought for a second and then nodded.
“I picked up some blueprints for a basic Guildhall earlier this morning,” he said. “Blueprints are
the first thing you need in Yvvaros for setting up any kind of building. You’ll still have to gather the supplies, the wood, the iron, and the clay on your own, but without this, you wouldn’t be able to actually build anything.”
“Sounds good,” said Silverstrike. “How much?”
The merchant smiled.
“500 gold and the blueprints are all yours.”
“500 gold?” Luke had trouble hiding the annoyance in his voice. “That’s not exactly affordable.”
“This isn’t a low-level item,” said the merchant. “The only reason I even have it is because another player I made a trade with scored one as a random item with his preorder bonus. It’s going to be even more expensive if you try to get blueprints from an NPC.”
“He’s right,” said Silverstrike.
Luke chewed on his lower lip.
Well, we’ve already come this far.
“Look, we don’t have that much money. Is there any way we can come to an arrangement? It’s going to be a long time before most of the other players are in the market for something like that.”
After a moment of thought, the merchant waved a conciliatory hand in the air.
“There is something I could use a little help with. It’s more of a personal matter, rather than business.”
“Go on,” said Silverstrike.
“I got hit by a PKer during my level one Merchant class quest.”
Luke glanced over at Silverstrike, who mouthed the words “player killer”.
“Yvvaros doesn’t really have any significant penalties for PKers, other than the bounties that NPCs and players can place on people.” The merchant scratched his beard and then looked down at the ground. “I’ll give you the blueprints if you track this guy down for me and bring me everything on his body.”
Luke smiled.
“I think we can help you with that. What’s the guy’s name?”
The merchant leaned in closer to the two of them.
“His name was Arex.”
CHAPTER 13
“There must be some kind of mistake.”
After speaking with the merchant, Luke and Silverstrike went to the inn. The news about Arex had left Luke speechless, so Silverstrike had agreed to look into the merchant’s request in exchange for the blueprints.
“Two players can’t have the same name,” said Silverstrike. “And besides, ‘Arex’ is a pretty unique sounding one.”
“I know, I just…” Luke felt a strange conflict brewing inside of him. “There must be more to it than what the merchant told us.”
Players don’t just kill other players for no reason?
“Well, I told him we’d look into it.” Silverstrike leaned back against the wall of the inn and frowned. “Look, I know he’s technically in our guild, but we don’t really know this guy. He was just in the right place at the right time.”
“I guess…”
“Besides, Yvvaros doesn’t really have many penalties for player killing. Even in Stark Town and Kantor, you can do what you want, to who you want. The worst that can happen is a large enough bounty being placed on your head to incentivize other players to go after you.”
Luke still felt skeptical.
He didn’t seem like a PKer… did he?
“We should at least hear his side of the story, first,” said Luke. “There could be something that makes it a little more, well, justified.”
“Sure, man, of course.” Silverstrike was toying with one of his daggers in between his fingers. Suddenly, he stopped and looked at something behind Luke, who turned around just in time to see Tess heading over.
“Hey guys,” she said. “What’s up?”
She had on new equipment, a purple and white gown that fit her perfectly, along with a medium length healer’s staff.
Speaking of which, I’m overdue for an upgrade of my own. I need to get some money…
“Tess,” said Silverstrike. “We have a problem.”
The two of them explained what had happened with the merchant. Her face slowly shifted into a confused, worried expression.
“Why would he do something like that?” she whispered. “This doesn’t make any sense!”
“That’s what I think,” said Luke. “We just need to-”
“We don’t know him.” Silverstrike interrupted Luke midsentence. “That’s the real truth here. He was helpful against the worm but come on, that’s the full extent of the time that we’ve spent with him.”
Luke looked at Tess, and could tell that she was thinking the same thing that he was.
Could I really have been that bad a judge of character?
“Whatever…” Luke shrugged. “It’s not like we can snap our fingers and make him appear and answer for what he may or may not have done. Let’s just head back to Dunidan’s Rest, start gathering the materials we need for the guild hall, and wait for him to turn up.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Silverstrike walked a little ahead of the Luke and Tess as they started making their way down to the border of the desert. Tess sidled up next to Luke and leaned her head in close to his.
“Do you really think he did it?”
Luke shook his head.
“I don’t know…” He gave her a resolute smile. “We’ll figure it out, regardless.”
Tess reached over and took his hand into hers. It felt warm, even though Luke knew that it wasn’t supposed to, that it wasn’t something the game should be able to simulate. It brought back the vivid memory of the moment the two of them had shared the night before.
“I’m glad that I’m in a guild with you, Kato,” whispered Tess. Luke squeezed her hand softly, even though he knew that she wouldn’t be able to feel it.
The edge of the desert was much more active than the three of them had seen before. Due to its proximity to Stark Town, some new players had taken to lounging about and organizing their groups in the area.
“It will be less crowded as people start to reach higher levels and journey further off,” said Silverstrike. “At least, I think it will.”
Zone 006, Dunidan’s Rest, was an ideal spot. After they’d killed the worm and claimed their zone, the area had reverted to a naturally calm state. The zone wasn’t deep enough into the wild for persistent spawns to be much of a threat, which, combined with the Oasis, made it an even more lucrative prize.
“Alright, well, we’ll need some wood.” Luke was at the front of the group as they drew into the center of the zone. “That’s probably going to be the biggest material resource.”
“Wood, clay, and iron,” said Silverstrike, “along with other miscellaneous stuff like glass and maybe cloth that we might end up having to buy.”
“Okay,” said Luke. “I guess I’ll get to chopping.”
“I’ll go with you.” Tess hopped over to him, her face adorned with a coy smile. “I actually got an ax as part of my preorder bonus.”
She reached into the satchel around her waist and pulled out an ax that looked far longer than what the tiny bag should have been capable of holding. She examined it for a moment before tossing it to Luke.
“Perfect,” said Luke. “What about you, Silverstrike?”
His friend shrugged his shoulders and gestured south.
“I know exactly where to look for clay, but it’s a bit of a walk. On the far southern edge of the Sarchia Desert are the mud pits of Farswick’s Folly. I’ll be able to dig for clay there.”
Luke nodded.
“Alright, just be careful.” He set a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “This is looking as though it’s going to take a bit of time, but think about how awesome it will be when we finish. We’ll have one of the first guild halls in Yvvaros. We can even set up a shop in it if we want, and eventually start a little town.”
Tess clapped her hands together in excitement.
“Yes! That sounds awesome!” She took off to the north, back toward the Inner Plains, where they could find the trees they needed. “Let’s go!”
Silverstrike smi
led at Luke.
“You heard the lady.”
It took Luke a minute to catch up with Tess after her spirited head start. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and soon the two of them were laughing and teasing one another. Luke jogged to keep up as Tess skipped along.
“I’m going to build a garden!” announced Tess.
“Our guild hall is going to be in the middle of the desert, in case you forgot.”
“We have an oasis in our zone, silly!” Tess veered over to Luke and playfully bounced against him.
“Hmmm, good point,” said Luke. “But it just seems a little, well, unnecessary. We should focus on getting the basics built first.”
“Fresh food and fresh water are the basics, Kato!” Tess skidded to a stop. “Speaking of which…”
The two of them had made it into the grasslands, and Tess sat down as she began rifling through her satchel. After a moment, she pulled out a long loaf of bread along with a couple of bluish looking vegetables that Luke was positive did not exist in the real world.
“My stamina bar is almost empty,” said Tess. “Here, you can have some too.”
Luke looked at his own stamina bar.
Jeez, mine is almost empty! How did I not notice?
Tess began nibbling at her food, taking small, mouse like bites out of the bread. Her expression looked as though she could actually taste it, and Luke found it to be one of the most endearing things he’d ever seen.
“Thanks, Tess,” he said. “Thanks for… well, thanks for being part of the guild.”
Tess batted her eyes at him.
“Is that really what you’re trying to say, Kato?”
Luke shrugged.
“I mean, it’s been cool hanging out with you. And getting to know you in-game.”
What does she want me to say? We kissed, and I still don’t know what it means.
Tess took another bite out of her food and rolled back so that she was lying on the grass and staring up at the sky.
“I wish real life worked more like this.” She paused, and Luke heard her let out the faintest of sighs.
