~‌ ‌1.08 ‌-‌ Beware of Where Bears Lie ‌~‌

 

Noto Town

2nd Spirtday of The Full Moon

 

Flea walked along the cobblestone path towards the Adventurers’ Guild when he heard shouting in the distance towards the wall. Picking up his pace, he started running towards the shouting. Arriving, he found two guards on the ground mauled, and a sizable deformed-looking bear he assumed was a terrorbear he’d heard of in passing. The bear was massive, round and muscular like your typical bear, but had the head of a ram. Long curled horns came out of the top of its head curling back, and coming back out the front in sharp points. On its back were long bristly spines like that of a porcupine. This beast looked nothing like any creature he had fought in other games before, but came straight out of a horror story.

 

The beast's roar shook Flea back to the present as the town guards were surrounding and stabbing at it with their spears. Before the young rogue could try and help the guards, the massive beast fell to the ground dead.

 

“Someone, go and grab some wooden planks to seal this damn hole in the wall,” one of the guards yelled.

 

As the guards started to run around to do their various tasks, one of the guards placed a white sheet over the guard that laid dead on the ground. Two other guards were attending to their other fallen brethren. 

 

It looked like he may make it through this ordeal. 

 

Flea walked up to the guard who shouted early for wooden planks and was now standing guard near the hole.

 

“I’m sorry about the guard you lost. Was that a terrorbear that attacked them, and how did it get into the town?”

 

The guard turned and studied Flea for a moment before responding. 

 

“You think you and other adventurers are the only ones who come back from death here? Sid will respawn sometime tomorrow. I believe this was his thirtieth death while in the Guard.”

 

“Oh, my apologies, I didn’t realize the citizens of Mea could respawn too.”

 

The guard snorted, “There are many things you have not realized yet, but will find out in time. As for your other question; you are correct. This terrorbear was one of the largest specimens I’ve ever seen on the island. We have no idea how a hole this large could have just appeared overnight in the town wall or even what drew a terrorbear out of the forest. My reports have no mentions of this hole from last night’s patrols as well, making this one huge mystery. I have my suspicions the Dryads are at play here.”

 

“Well, if you guys need any help with anything, I’m free to help. My name is Flea.”

 

“Lieutenant Brunick. We’ll put in a request to the Adventurers’ Guild shortly to request the aid of the Adventurers to find out any informa…” He abruptly stopped talking.

 

The lieutenant walked out of the large hole staring at something on the ground in the rubble. Bending down, he poked it with his spear and pushed off a large piece of wood covering whatever the lieutenant was staring at. Walking up behind him to look himself, Flea saw a woven basket with a dead terrorbear cub held within.

 

“Son of a Dweller. I bet those Dryads lured that terrorbear here. It must have been a matriarch following the scent of one of her cubs. That’s why it was so massive. They rarely leave their territory unless they need to hunt for prey for their litter.”

 

The hair on the back of Flea’s hair raised at hearing that bit of news. Players were now arriving to see what all the commotion was, so he decided to leave and head to the Adventurers’ Guild. Entering, he found the place pretty spartan. Nueleth or Fenix didn’t seem to be at the reception desks, so he walked up to the Dwarf with brown hair and beard on the right. The Dwarf greeted him with a very feminine voice. 

 

“Hello darling, I’m Airthiel. How can I help you today?

 

“Flea, nice to meet you, Airthieal. I’m here to turn in my quest chits and grab new quests if they’re available. Also, there should be a quest coming in soon from the guard to find out about the terrorbear that attacked the town. Would it be possible if I could start it and come back later to grab the quest officially?”

 

“WHAT!? A Terrorbear attacked the town?”

 

Flea spent a few minutes explaining everything that happened at the wall and the information he had about the incident. 

 

“Oh my, that hasn’t happened the entire time I’ve lived in Noto. As long as the quest isn’t above your rank, you should be ok, but you can’t complete it unless it’s added to your quest journal. Hand me your chits, please.”

 

Flea handed over the three chits he had received from Krem, Grom, and Silverfang. Airthiel took them and his copper tags, asking Flea to wait a moment, and went into one of the backrooms. Flea heard some clanking noises from the back before she returned a moment later. Here are your Copper “I” tags. 

 

“Congratulations, by the way; you’re now a Copper I ranked adventure. Please place a couple of drops of your blood on the tags, please, and they will soulbind to you”. 

 

Flea did as told, but nothing flashy happened as it did with the bag. Checking his Status screen, he noticed the Copper I on his status window now. 

 

 

“Why didn’t they have me soulbind to my copper tags when I got them?”

 

“Anyone can get them by just coming in. We allow anyone to do the Copper quests regardless if they are registered or not. We don’t have adventurers soulbind to them till your first division level up. Soulbinding your tags prevents those races who can’t become adventurers from getting their hands on them.”

 

With that completed, he walked up to the board and could see the same three quests he had done before, along with two new quests. Grabbing copies of all five, he walked back up to Airthiel. 

 

“I didn’t see those two new quests on the board when I walked in. How did they get put up so fast?”

 

“They were always there. Each quest is printed on a special stack of parchment created at one of the main Adventurers’ Guild mainland branches. They weave illusion magic into them as they are creating them. These illusions are attuned to the ranks of the tags you and other adventurers carry. Adventurers with the correct ranked tags can see what's written on them. These two quests were printed on ranked Copper I parchments, and so now you could see them.” she explained.

 

Flea thanked her for explaining it to him and headed out. Next, he stopped by The Pit and spoke with Gronky on training in Skinning and butchery. He paid him 50 coppers to learn both skills. Two hours later, he had the basics of skinning and butchering the meat, as well as finding the cores on a beast. Gronky explained almost every monster or creature has a core, but most pull out too much energy from their core during a fight. This often causes the core to shatter and dissolve upon their death. He explained the best way to keep the cores from shattering was to ambush them, killing them before they could even use their cores.

 

For the rest of the evening, Flea farmed rabbits and gathered Hollyhock down in the fields and by the treeline. Being able to skin and butcher the rabbits as he killed them allowed him to farm for hours without filling up his magic bag. When Flea heard the last evening bell toll before the workday ended, he headed back into town to turn in and sell everything. He stopped by The Pit and sold his meat to Gronky for 3 copper each, netting him one silver and 29 copper. Gronky handed him an additional 26 copper, twenty-six rabbit hides and horns and five dull cores, from the rabbits he had given him the day before.

 

Stopping by Krem’s, Flea sold thirty-two hides for one silver and 16 copper. The Gnome would have had more, but he ruined quite a few as he started skinning the rabbits on his own. It took him about ten kills  before he got used to cutting and removing the skin off of the rabbit’s carcass without ruining them.

 

Flea took his time heading over to The Silver Pestle. Entering his nose was once again assaulted by the pine and lavender scent from within the shop. He sold Silverfang his twenty-three Hollyhock and sixty-nine rabbit horns for one silver and 12 copper. He also bought four Lesser Health Potions for 50 copper each. Silverfang had talked him into buying them. 

 

“Adventurers should always have at least a couple of Lesser Health Potions on hand. You never know when the scales of winning or losing are being wagered on having a single health potion,” she had said.

 

Flea asked how the health potions worked, and Silverfang explained that all health potions would rapidly close wounds and restore one’s blood loss. Health potions kick-started the body's healing and put it into overdrive until the person fully healed. The brews’ different ranks dictated how bad the body’s own reserves would be ravaged after the healing was complete. The Lesser Healing Potions he had bought will heal the user just fine, but the amount of stress on the body would probably knock the person out for a couple of hours once they sat down to rest. Silverfang warned Flea that if he used a potion while in combat, he should not stop and relax until he was sure he was in a safe enough area or someone was guarding him. Then he should eat a massive meal to restore the body’s reserves.

 

With two of the three starter quests done, he glanced at his journal to see what he needed to do for the newest ones.

 

 

Flea had the silver ore already for the quest turn in and enough to sell to Telen. He decided to swing by the Adventurers’ Guild to see about grabbing the quest for the matriarch terrorbear problem. Arriving, he found he was not high enough rank for the posted quest. Fenix was at the receptionist’s desk and explained the Guild felt if someone had deliberately stolen a cub from a matriarch, then the quest’s difficulty was at least Copper III rank. Flea decided he would try and look for clues anyway. 

 

Going back to the hole in the wall, Flea found it patched up with wooden planks and a guard stationed nearby. He doubted any player would have the rank to grab the quest yet, so Flea wanted to get a head start on this quest. He also wondered if the quest was repeatable. It had to be a one-off story type quest for the first person to complete it. Leaving the now closed-hole, he went out of the South Gate, walking back to the hole from the other side. 

 

Arriving, he found the area clean of the wall’s debris. The basket with the cub was even long gone. Examining around the boarded-up hole, Flea couldn’t make out anything of interest. Looking downhill at the tall grass, he could see a faint line of bent grass stalks from the forest to the hole in the wall where the matriarch had walked through the grass coming up to the wall. He decided to travel down the hill and follow the line of bent grass into the forest. 

 

Entering the tree line of the forest, Flea found the trail abruptly ended. He couldn’t tell what direction the matriarch had come from. Flea decided to try his luck hunting terrorbears and wander around, looking for any clues he might be able to spot. He found his first terrorbear quickly enough. He could hear the grunts echoing through the forest canopy as he got closer. The terrorbear he found was rubbing its back on a tree. 

 

The bear was properly scratching its back, trying to remove old quills.

 

After another minute of Flea watching the terrorbear, it left, walking deeper into the forest. Flea spotted two quills stuck into the bark of the tree and went over to yank them out. They were surprisingly very light, thick as one of his fingers, and seemed to be hollow.

 

Placing them into his magic bag, Flea followed the terrorbear further into the wood. He kept following as silently as he could and heard a crack from under his foot. Lifting his foot and finding a twig had snapped under it, looking back up the terrorbear was already charging at him. He threw himself to the side and tried to slice at the beast. His dagger found zero purchase and was repelled by the quills on the bear’s side. 

 

Flea scrambled to put his back against a tree as the beast stared him down. The terrorbear charged at him again, and Flea dodged to the left, then darted behind the tree. The bear, not being able to stop its own momentum, ran right into the tree, slumping down to the ground in a daze. Quickly taking out a vial paralyzing poison, Flea coated his daggers with it.  Darting around the tree, he slammed them into the bear's eyes, yanked them out, then darted back behind the cover of the tree. 

 

The bear roared in agony as it awoke and started to swipe wildly around itself. Hitting the tree multiple times with its razor-sharp claws taking chunks out of it, the terrorbear began to whine. Flea exited from his cover and stalked around the bear as it was still thrashing about, trying to stab into the bear’s sides but never getting past its quills. After a while, the bear stopped swiping and sat down on its butt and started to paw its eyes, whining.

 

The poison should be taking effect about now.

 

Deciding it was time to take a chance Flea darted in front of the bear, stabbing his blade into it’s unprotected throat. He then pulled the dagger back as hard as he could towards himself, opening the bear's throat up and causing blood to gush from the wound onto Flea. Just as the Gnome finished pulling out his dagger, the bear died; falling forward on top of the young teen. Trapped under the bear, it seemed no matter how much he squirmed, Flea couldn’t get out from under the giant carcass. He started shouting for help but found the more he screamed, the less air he could breathe in. It only took a few minutes for him to suffocate and allow the dialog box to pop up.

 

 

Kyle’s MicroWorld

Thursday, June 11th

 

Well, shit. That was a terrible way to go.

 

Flea materialized next to the pavilion and walked into his house to check the screen displaying the dead terrorbear lying on his now-dead corpse. 

 

“Bob, could I get some type of computer terminal and a desk upstairs in one of the rooms so I can check on the forums and send messages from within my MicroWorld? I don’t want to use augmented vision while I'm here.”

 

[Affirmative, Kyle. I can do as you ask. I’ve placed a computer terminal, desk, and chair in the first room to your left at the top of the stairs. They were a part of your package and already in the house's inventory.]

 

Walking into the room, he found the desk, chair, and computer terminal already set up for him. All of his communication accounts were ready for him in the terminal. 

 

The terminal must be an extension of my Neurolink’s augmented interface. 

 

He sent a message to Sinn3r, getting a reply instantly. Sinn3r had talked to almost everyone in the guild. The only information he had received was that both Elenmel and Ironbound were going into an experimental medical treatment facility to help treat their cystic fibrosis. They signed an NDA not to disclose anything about it, so no one knew where they were. Everyone who knew what they were going through was fearing the worst, with the amount of time already passed.

 

After the conversation with Sinn3r, he browsed through Fantasy’s forums and other game news sites. He read an article talking about Neurolink’s plans to open up additional factories to boost the production of their new implants and the AI’s for them. Deciding not to log out, he asked Bob to wake him up when his resurrection lockout timer was over. Bob placed a bed in the second room next to his now office. Kyle laid on it; falling asleep faster than he had ever done before.

 

Noto’ Town Square

2nd Spirtday of The Full Moon

 

Logging off and taking care of his body’s needs, after Bob had woken him up; he logged back into Fantasy. Finding a guard to direct him to Rebeca’s shop, he traveled to The Family Jewels. Chuckling at the name, Flea walked inside. He turned over his five silver ore to Rebeca for eight copper apiece and received a blue Copper chit, then left. Walking towards one of the weapons and armor shops he had passed before, he soon found himself inside The Whetstone. 

 

“Hello,” greeted the massive Dwarf behind the counter. 

 

“I need a new set of daggers. Mine are currently under a dead terrorbear in the forest.”

 

“How the hell did they end up there?” The Dwarf chuckled.

 

“Couldn’t get my dagger out of its neck in time before it fell dead atop me.”

 

“Never heard that one before. Our daggers are over here in this display case. Do you have any preference on the type of dagger you use?”

 

“I don’t know the different types of daggers, so I’ll just see what you have, I guess.”

 

Flea talked with the Dwarf, finding out his name to be Kniv. He bought a simple pair of Iron Daggers and sheaths for three silvers from the shop owner. 

 

After getting his new set of daggers, he headed off to The Drunken Ogre. Arriving, he paid Dross for the rest of the week, keeping the same room. Walking up to his room, he decided to level up with the cores he had in his bag. He pulled out the 21 marbles he farmed from the rabbits earlier and crushed them one after another.

 

 

He had 57 Energy now. He chose to level up Constitution to one, Strength to 1, and Dexterity to 2, spending 40 Energy. Mentally confirming his attribute upgrades, he fell over.

 

 

Flea woke up at the sound of the sunset’s five bell tolls. Jumping out of his bed, he ran down the stairs and out of the inn. He hadn’t remembered passing out, but now he understood why Gronky said to do it before bed. Whatever change it put him under knocked him the hell out. He grabbed two torches, lighting one at the North Gate, and sprinted towards the mines to meet Khorwin.