Ch 16 – Slipping
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I followed Tidal for quite some time but he didn’t seem too keen on talking. Rather I might ask him a question and he would reply simply. For instance when I asked him if he liked to walk he replied, “No.” Then at one point he just told me to be quiet for a while. So I did, in truth It gave me more time to try and think about what had happened with Kervick.

Our exchange had really been bothering me, after all I just wanted to be helpful and talk to people. Was there something wrong with that? Was I somehow being a nuisance? I never had these sorts of issues when I had just stayed at the guild hall. Then again I didn’t really say much back then. After my discussion with Korvin I had thought things just kept getting better. Yet now I found myself feeling more and more uncertain and confused. The more I tried to understand what was happening, the more my own thoughts seemed to meander. I could remember a time when I might have not even considered this an issue.

My thoughts seemed to be going in loops, I’d spend some time trying to understand Kervick, then some time blaming him for the situation. Once I’d done that for a while I thought I might have understood how it might happen, then I’d blame myself. After a while that seemed to be wrong, so I’d circle back around to the start again.

At some point I recognized that it was a loop and that continuing as I had wasn’t going to go anywhere. Yet I continued on anyway.

While I was processing all of this I walked behind Tidal. At a few points we had to stop, so he could fight a goblin, other times we might just pause for a minute for no reason. As far as the goblins went he had improved, or at least I thought he did. It was hard to compare when I had only seen him fight the group previously.

“You’ve gotten better at fighting the goblins.” I offered at one point.

“A bit yeah.” Was all he replied with.

Rather than try to re-engage with him and for him to tell me to be quiet again I just resumed following him in silence.

At some point I spotted a cabin ahead, it was at the base of a rocky crag that loomed up and around us. It had been built next to a small cave entrance.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“This?” Tidal chuckled, “It's our business venture.”

“Business venture?” I requested.

“Caves have naturally spawning mobs that drop decent loot, so we set up a cabin out here so we can get rested bonuses without having to constantly walk all the way back to civilization. Plus we can stash all our loot.” Tidal explained. “It works pretty well and we’ve been collecting a decent number of drops, but some of the items are just too heavy to lug around so we’ve ended up with a bit of a stock pile of things like swords, shields and stupid shit like barrels and planks that its virtually impossible to carry more then a few of.” 

“You’re making money by selling these things?” I said, confirming my understanding.

“Yep, so that's where you can help. We can just sell all that heavy shit to you while you're here.” Tidal explained his grin returning.

I smiled gently, “Oh, I can certainly help with that.”

“Exactly.” He agreed, leading the way to the cabin.

Walking inside the cabin I found that the space was occupied by two beds, and the rest of the walls had chests, or barrels lined up. Some of the chests were full of things that prevented the lids from closing all the way.

“Well might as well get started…” Tidal said, propping a lid open with a leg as he said, “Sell.” and began to hand me items.

It took quite a while to get through everything, and in truth I’d never seen anyone sell so many things. Usually people might sell a handful of things to me at the guildhall at best. But Tidal was just shoving things at me, everything from rusty nails to broken swords. It was almost entirely next to worthless, each thing varying from one copper to ten except for some more specific item which might have been fifty or a bit higher. A few times Tidal seemed surprised as I handed him his money back.

While we were doing this someone else walked in, I glanced over to find the name, “Yuri” over their head. “Hello” I greeted them.

Yuri blinked at me, “Holy shit, I was expecting an old fart or something when you messaged me earlier.”

Tidal laughed, “Yeah, she's the defective NPC from the guild, she's been wandering around doing weird shit, I reported her before, and I think our guild master opened a ticket to report her.”

Yuri laughed, “That’s fucked up. But you won’t get in trouble for taking her?”

“I found her on the side of the road walking here. She came along on her own.” Tidal explained.

I felt that I was being insulted, and what did he mean they had reported me? And tickets? Were they trying to ride the ferry? I simply didn’t understand. “You said you had something I could help with.” I objected to the oversimplification of events, a small hit of anger in my tone. 

“And you are helping right?” Tidal pointed out.

I nodded, though I kept my expression to let him know I wasn’t quite happy with him.

“Seriously though man, she's pretty cute. She's even an animal kin? I’ve only seen one or two of them out in the woods.” Yuri noted.

Tidal glanced at me, “Eh…” He glanced up at my head, “I think someone put those ears on her. I don’t remember her having them before.”

Before I could reply to confirm Tidal's thoughts, Yuri walked behind me and poked at my skirt, “Yeah, no tail… She doesn't dodge either.”

“Hmm? Dodge?” Tidal asked.

“Yeah usually when you grab at them they tend to move with almost superhuman agility.” He explained.

I don’t know that I’d have called it super human, but I at least understood what he meant. I used to feel the need to move away each time anyone got too close.

Tidal shrugged, he was still handing me items, and I was still giving him coins.

“Maybe I’ve seen them do something like that, why does it matter?” Tidal asked.

“Well… I had a fun idea before when I rented out a room at an Inn.” Yuri explained.

“Kay?” Tidal nodded along.

“Let’s just say that them dodging out of the way kinda spoiled the plan.” Yuri said with a dark smile.

Tidal raised an eyebrow at that, “If you say so.”

Yuri chuckled, “You're gonna leave her here then?”

“Sure, I’m almost done selling things, did you want to do a few more collection runs? It's gonna be so much easier to just pawn it off here. We can even still have these extra barrels.” Tidal explained.

I wasn’t fully following their conversation. Leave me here? I could leave if I wanted to. Perhaps he was saying that wasn’t going to walk me back? That was fine, I could walk back on my own.

Yuri nodded, “Right on. I’ll meet you in the cave in a bit.”

So with that Yuri left, and Tidal finished emptying the last of the containers, before selling several of the barrels that were left on the floor. That all done the room was quite uncluttered, three chests in one corner, two beds in the other side pushed up against the wall.

“There were a lot of things to sell.” I commented as he closed the chests and took a breath.

“Yep.” He nodded, glancing at me for a moment.

“Why are you trying to make so much money?” I asked, not really sure what his plans were.

“Well, we sell it.” Tidal noted.

“Sell… money?” I asked, a bit confused by the concept.

“Yeah, one form of money for another. Like currency exchangers.” Tidal said with a mischievous grin.

I didn't quite follow that, were there multiple forms of currency? “What do other people want the money for then?” I asked, if Tidal wasn’t spending the coppers surely someone else who was buying it wanted it for something?

“Mostly shit in town, honestly, a lot of people don’t feel like getting hurt fighting monsters but still want to enjoy the girls and food. It is surprising how much cash people are willing to spend on what we earn here. It's probably gonna be even better when it releases for real.” Tidal chuckled.

I couldn’t help but be unable to truly understand, not only had I barely used coppers, but I couldn’t even truly comprehend that there was another type of currency as well. I didn’t honestly know, and I wasn’t sure that Tidal knew either.

Tidal stepped over to the door, “Alright we’ll be back in a few.” Then he stepped out.

Tidal and Yuri came back a moment later, both of them carrying arms full of strange things. In moments I was selling things for them, and handing them coppers.

Oddly enough this happened several more times with them leaving, then coming right back in. I could tell time was passing because the clock skipped forward by hours each time, yet for me it was like I was just skipping ahead. I didn’t have a lot of time to consider it, but somehow this place was causing time to slip by much as the guild hall did.

At some point Tidal didn’t come back, but Yuri did, but the routine was the same. I had no idea how much copper I’d given them both by the end of it, but it was like I hadn’t done anything but convert items into money for what seemed like ages.

After literal days of taking whatever Tidal and Yuri had found in this cave and paying them copper for it it seemed like even Yuri was done.

“Well that was productive…” He mused to himself.

“I’m happy I could help.” I replied after a moment I added, “But I should probably return to the guildhall.”

“Ahh, yeah about that.” Yuri said, walking over to where I was standing.

He held out his hand and gave me a smile, “Thanks for the help.”

It took me a moment, but I finally understood that the gesture was for, a handshake. Smiling, I reached out and took his hand.

He shook my hand three times, and before I could retract my hand from his grip, his other hand came up, and locked something to my wrist.

“What?” I asked in sudden confusion before letting out a shocked cry as I was pulled by him further to the back corner.

With a quick motion he slapped whatever he had connected to my wrist to the bedpost, and took a step away.

I looked down at my wrist considering what had just happened. “Handcuffs?” I asked my confusion only getting deeper.

“Not completely stupid huh? Yeah, well we can’t very well let you cut into our profits by running off. Tidal wasn’t sure how long you would stick around, but after thinking it through I decided my idea might work with you since you weren't dodging away.

I frowned at that, was this what that was supposed to prevent? Had I chosen to lose something that would have helped me because some things seemed wrong? “But I won’t be able to return to the guildhall.” I protested, thought even as I said it I already recognized that Yuri likely didn’t care.

“Yeah, based on what Tidal told me before you’ve been mostly AWOL as it is so it's not likely anyone is gonna miss you.” He said.

I took a step towards the door pulling at my wrist which was now connected to the Bed. I looked down at the handcuffs which seemed to be glowing slightly as I tried to move away from the bed. Rather than holding my wrist by physical means it seemed to be holding my wrist in place by some kind of magic.

“Yeah, don’t try to escape from that… it's designed to capture humanoid monsters for the monster tamers. Should hold you quite nicely.” He yawned, “In the meantime you can just look forward to helping us out from now on as our little pet.” Yuri chuckled as he walked out the door.

 

Ticket: #794 - Missing NPC (continued)

Kervick: Any update, the same NPC has completely gone missing for a while now.

Support: Be believe we’ve tracked down the issue, it appears that there is a bug in how NPC’s are instanced, resulting in you sharing your instance with multiple other players.

Maintenance: We’ve removed association to that missing instance of the NPC. This should resolve this issue. [ Marked Closed ]

Kervick: The NPC is back, but she no longer remembers any interactions we’ve had before. [Reopened]

Support: Since it's no longer the same instance, personal experience no longer applies. Does this explain the situation?

Kervick: I want the original one back, and present, not a completely new one.

Support: I’m not sure I follow, what was so special about that instance of the NPC?

Kervick: She was more interesting than the other one.

Support: Do you mean her dialog options or quest details? These are mostly shared between NPCs.

Admin: Kervick, I’ve restored your association to the original NPC, I apologize for the mishandling of this issue. It's not a bug, but rather someone has NPC-knapped your guild girl. Seems like you have a mystery to solve on your hands. If you want her back you’d best start asking your guild mates questions rather than support.

Kervick: That's possible?

Admin: Yes. [ Closed & Locked ]

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