I woke up with cat hair tickling my nose.

The fire had died down through the night, but there was light coming through the kitchen window and the air was no longer frigid with cold. Shafts of sunlight were heating up the wooden rafters of the ceiling, imbuing the kitchen with a pleasant woody aroma.

I gently nudged the ball of white fur that was snoozing on my chest.

“Aleister, hey, wake up.” I whispered.

The cat yawned, and slid off my chest. He then curled up next to me, and went right back to sleep.

I got up and stretched, my muscles aching from sleeping on a pile of dirty sacks and towels. What a life.

I looked around my kitchen ‘base camp.’ The cat kept dozing on our makeshift bedroll, and Cheerful was perched above a cabinet.

The window was letting in sunlight, but like before, I couldn’t see anything outside. I missed the trees and the sky. Hopefully, I will be able to unlock the front door soon.

My stomach rumbled. I fished out a few more apples from the sack, and sat down at the kitchen table. While eating, I thought about what I needed to get done. I formed a list in my head.

First, I needed to clean up the kitchen; fireplace, ceiling, floor, and the teetering tower of dirty dishes.

Then, I would scrounge all the available rooms, and gather any food I could find. After I’d done all that, if there was still time, I would unlock any door I could, given my EXP for the day.

I chewed the apple thoughtfully. It seemed like a good plan. As soon as I finished my meager breakfast, I began to put the plan into action.

I started with the fireplace, sensing that cleaning it out would send clouds of ash into the air. I wasn’t wrong. I used one of the burlap sacks to gather up all the ash and deposit it into the trash bin. When I looked into the aluminum can, I was surprised to find it empty of the contents from yesterday. I guessed that it was somehow imbued with magic.

I found the broom I had tripped up over in the front room, and swept all the cobwebs off the ceiling, and the window sills, and between the cabinets. Really, I spent a long time sweeping out cobwebs. I threw away trash, and swept, and pretty much worked in this manner all morning.

I saved the pile of dishes for last. It probably took me three hours to get through all of them. If only I had a dishwasher!

I found that I could kill two birds with one stone. As I went through the cabinets, I pulled out anything that might look like food, and stacked it on our table. Besides the apples, there were about seven jars of pickled vegetables, a couple of sacks of dried beans and lentils, one clay pot with oil, a little jar of salt, a tin half full of black tea, and about a dozen cans of preserves; tuna, vienna sausages, and spam. The cans, I knew, would probably end up being cat food.

As I cleaned, I got messages about earning EXP and SKP. Cleaning out the fireplace got me 2 SKP for Fire Tending, and 3 for Tidying. The rest, all went to Tidying. When I was done, I had racked up 35 EXP.

When I finally finished, I sat down exhausted at the table. I wouldn’t say that it was sparkling inside the kitchen, since I couldn’t find a mop or any soap, but it was much cleaner than when I started.

Three was something bothering me as I cleaned and stacked my precious morsels of food. I called over Aleister and Cheerful to discuss this matter.

“We have a problem,” I started, “I can’t go outside. This,” I pointed to the food laid out on the table, “is all I could find to eat.”

“Right.” Aleister replied.

“The house is locked, and I’m not going to get enough experience any time soon.”

“So?”

“How am I going to get food? I don’t like the idea of starving here, then after I’m dead, having you eat my face.” I said pointedly to Aleister. It is what cats do, after all.

Before Aleister could retort, Cheerful started jumping up and down.

“Yes, yes I can help!” He said.

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I can fly to the market and bring something back! Nothing too big, nothing huge, just something! I can make a few trips, maybe, if you want a lot! I can help!” Cheerful seemed very happy to finally be useful. However, I didn’t like the idea of sending a talking crow after innocent merchants minding their stall at the town market. How would that even work?

“Cheerful, I’m not sure if I should do that-”

“No no no, I do it all the time! I fly out, I do errands, I like to help! Let me help! You just need to give me money, and I'll buy anything you want! Anything I can carry, that is!”

“Ah,” I said, “then we have another problem. I don’t think I have any money.”

“Have you checked your inventory?” Aleister piped up.

“I’m not sure how to do that.” I answered, truthfully.

The cat sighed.

“Do you have the riddles you solved? What happened to those pages?” He asked.

I did remember. Hadn’t I put those in my pocket? I reached in to fish them out, and-

Inventory

Auros: 0

Bones: 0

Castles: 0

Cannons: 0

Ingredients:

  ???

Products:

  ???

Misc.

  Cards of Destiny: 3 of ?? Discovered

  Old Toad’s Riddles: 2 of ?? Solved

As I was reading through my new found inventory page, I heard Aleister grumbling.

“How fortunate for you that I’m amenable to being your humble assistant. This is after all, a true test of my prowess: helping you find your own pockets.”

I decided to ignore the kitty for now. I had no idea what Auros, Bones, Castles, or Cannons were. Since I had zero, I didn’t worry about it.

The Misc. section was the only one that I was starting to fill out. I had three Cards of Destiny and two Old Toad’s Riddles. I mentally focused on the latter, and two torn pages appeared in my hand. It was the Princess and the Cat puzzle from earlier! Cool!

I put those back in my pocket, and decided to focus on the “Cards of Destiny.”

Three cards, battered and frayed at the edge, appeared in my palm. They looked like antique Tarot cards.

I remember receiving them when I saw those flashbacks of the person I was supposed to be in this world. The cards were: Hole in the Ground, Train to the City, and Sorceress. They felt warm in my hands, as though they were imbued with some kind of energy.

I had never played with Tarot cards, but I felt drawn to shuffle my three cards face down, and pick one out. I did that, and picked “Sorceress.”

As I flipped the card over, I swore I saw the blue haired woman drawn on the card smile at me.

Underneath the title of the card, I saw a little subscript. “Secrets and power hide in her blue hair.” I then saw another text box:

The Sorceress smiles on those who seek to progress. All EXP costs are lowered for the day.

Nice! The cards could give me buffs. I immediately tried drawing another card. This time I got Hole in the Ground, but nothing happened. The cards no longer felt warm. I guessed that I could only do this once a day.

It was still early afternoon, and I had time to explore the rest of the house. How lucky to have drawn the Sorceress! I would spend less EXP unlocking those doors!

I put the cards back in my pocket, happy to have discovered another feature of the system. I would have to remember to draw another card tomorrow morning.

As I put everything away, and shifted my awareness to the present, my Inventory page disappeared. I noticed that there was now a little bag icon next to my character sheet icon.

“That was cool!” I said to my guides.

“So, how much money do you have?” The cat got straight to business.

“Oh, I didn’t see any money…”

“It would be called Auros. Check again.”

I pulled up my Inventory again. There was a big fat zero for Auros.

“And I guess Bones, Castles, and Cannons are denominations of Auros?” I asked Aleister.

“Yes, that’s right.” he answered.

“I have zero of everything.” I answered, “So, how am I going to buy food, if I haven’t got any money?” We finally circled back to the issue at hand. The cat, the crow, and I would starve here in this locked house if I didn’t figure out how to get some food for us.

“Oh, oh, I know!” Cheerful sprang up, “Do you want me to restart the Parcel Service?”

“The what now?”

“You better just say yes.” Aleister drawled. I found that I begrudgingly trusted the cat, so I agreed.

“Yes, sure, fine.”

As I gave my assent, Cheerful whooped, flew in a circle around the kitchen, and then he was gone.

“What did I just agree to exactly?” I turned on the cat.

“All in good time. I believe you have something to work out before Cheerful’s return.” He said, and started licking his front paw.

A page fluttered down onto the table. I had the impression it had something to do with Cheerful’s flight.

I picked it up, and recognized the familiar torn side. It was another riddle!

My To Do list suddenly got populated.

EXP: 87

To Do:

 

  1. Solve The Riddle of Doors

  2. Unlock the Parcel Service

  3. Send the first Parcel

I wasn’t sure what any of the Parcel business was, but at this point I was familiar enough with riddles.

Ankara is a merchant who lives in the Northern Hemisphere, and sells spices door to door. She has five customers in this region, but they will only buy her spices if she takes the correct route to their houses.

Every house has to get visited at least once. No house should be visited more than once, unless they specifically request it. Ankara should start at one of the houses and end at one of the houses. Ankara can only plan her route in straight lines, and can’t backtrack over a route she’s already taken.

What path should Ankara take between the houses given the messages she received from the customers, below:

“I am the one who lives in a house with a green door. Come to my house by the longest way and leave my house by the longest way. Both paths shall be different. This is as I will it.”

“I am the one who lives in the house with the yellow door. Your journey to my house shall be a praise of the sun’s journey from sunrise to sunset. This is how I speak it.”

“I am the one who lives in the house with the red door. The noon sun shall brighten your face as you journey to my house. This is what I know to be righteous.”

“I am the one who lives in the house with the blue door. Come to my house first and I shall bless you. Come to my house last, and I shall honor you. This is what I dare to ask.”

The one who lives in the house with the violet door remained silent.

There was a picture below the text.

My solution to the riddle follows next.

I drew the solution into the page. I knew it was right as soon as I got the system message:

Riddle: The Way Between the Doors (Aspirant Difficulty)

Complete!

20 EXP

  12 Skill Points to Logic (Speech)

  2 Skill Points to Coagula (Alchemy)

  3 Skill Points to Solvé (Alchemy)

1 Skill Unlocked:

  3 Skill Points to Theoria (Alchemy)

My To Do list changed as well.

EXP: 107

To Do

  1. Solve The Riddle of Doors

  2. Unlock the Parcel Service

  3. Send the first Parcel

“Satisfactory,” the cat said as soon as I finished the puzzle. “Take care that you remember that symbol.”

I looked down at the page, and made a note of the picture.

“Now what?”

“Now we wait for Cheerful to return with your first order.”