A part of Vasilisa felt like a mad scientist, but another part of him felt like this was the sort of thing he should take advantage as soon as possible. Travelling in real life was painfully expensive, and he was pretty certain that travelling in fake life was going to be pricey too, nevermind the fact that it’d also be dangerous as hell going off into the unknown. But Vasilisa came to Thalam for the express purpose of doing things she couldn’t do in real life.

So there he was, skulking in a dark alleyway, his broad shoulders and barrel chest at odds with how narrow his illicit rendezvous point was. The cleric had no idea whether or not Mimika was as painful to interact with in game as they were in chat, but then again, if impressions were bad, he could part ways with them real easily. With that in mind, he sat on a barrel, humming a song to himself.

Soon enough, the aforementioned Mimika appeared at the alley’s entrance - the sunlight behind her cast a menacing shadow deep into the space between buildings. However, once she stepped into the backstreet and made her way closer to Vasilisa, her true form was revealed: a cute, petite elven cleric. Mimika waltzed down the alleyway with a smirk on her face, growing even more smug as she paused and looked Vasilisa up and down.

“Sooo I’ll have you know my E-RP rates are kind of high. Game’s still new, can you pay? I also accept gift cards - in real life, of course,” she said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. The other cleric’s vague message in the game’s chat log didn’t really give her any idea as to what he wanted, so she could only assume.

“Huh?” Vasilisa made a face. “Aren’t you here for business? Like, playing the market and all. Whatever you people do to make money.”

Mimika looked at the beefcake with a deadpan stare. “Uh, yeah. I am trying to make money. That’s why I’m charging you.”

Vasilisa blinked. Maybe econ majors just couldn’t read subtext. That’s the price you paid, huh. Without another word, he reached into his Inventory and drew out the Nativity Tunic, handing it over to the midget cleric. “Blue Slimes drop these. Easily as well. You’ve been to the shops yet?”

She took the tunic in her hands, scrutinizing it. It looks similar to the tunic that the blue slimes dropped, true… but it was cleaner. Wait, didn’t they drop ‘slime-covered tunics’? This was anything but slime-covered.

“Did you… like, wash this off....?” she murmured, turning the tunic over in her hands. She didn’t have one of the slime tunics herself, but her party leader had gotten one pretty early on. It really seemed to be the same thing, just with a different name. If that was true…

“I haven’t been inside them yet,” Mimika said, handing the tunic back to Vasilisa. “Are you telling me you can turn the slime-covered tunics into a better item? You wanna resell them for profit or something? ‘Cause that’s… actually a pretty good idea, I think.”

“Same thing with the sword.” Vasilisa pulled that one out too, rotating it. “Doesn’t take too long at all to clean off the slime. Could do it faster with soap, probably. And I have checked the shops. Nothing else this early on comes close to matching these in stats or effects. Before anyone else realizes the value of the slime-covered items, we should take advantage of it.”

A pause.

“I need lotsa money if I wanna go far. Can you make early money into bigger money like those investors do in Wolf of Wall Street?”

This dude’s plan is sound, Marcus thought to himself. Mimika touched a hand to her chin as if thinking it over. She could take this info and run, but then her reputation would drop hard. Better to go into business with him. His reference was a little dated, but she got what he meant.

“I think I can do that,” she said, smiling. “We need to get a bunch of slimey items, clean them and resell them, ya? Shouldn’t be that hard. I can sell things with this pretty face of mine~” the cleric chuckled to herself before continuing. “Uh, we would be selling to the other players, right? That would make us more money than selling to shops. I can already see a problem though…”

Mimika didn’t have pockets because she had a neat UI inventory, but she made a gesture as if pulling a pants pocket inside out.

“I don’t have any money. Neither does my party. We can sell them to the people that have cleared the tutorial quest already, but that’s like… I dunno, 20 copper?” She didn’t bother checking the quest info. “Although if we take everyone in the server for their quest reward money, we’d probably already be the richest people in the game.”

Vasilisa shrugged. “What if we offered enhancement services instead? They provide money and the equipment, we provide the miracle method.” A pause, and his eyes slide towards the market. “Maybe hire an NPC to serve as the front?” More pondering, more contemplation. “Or just sell this information to a shopkeep, and get a cut of the profits.”

“No, no giving info away - “ Mimika spoke up quickly. Her ditzy personality was melting away as the conversation went on. “Besides, who knows if an NPC shopkeeper could even do something like that? An NPC frontman might be good though. He takes the items and cash and passes them off to us. We could probably get away with only paying the NPC pennies too. Min-wage. Yeah… this could work.”

She grinned at the other cleric. “The two of us together and I think we can make this happen!”

“Alright.” Vasilisa nodded, before storing his equipment back into his Inventory. “I’ll do some price-checking on resell value; you can find someone to serve as the frontman. Keep in touch, Mimika.” He extended a hand for a shake. “If all goes well, we’ll be the richest players on the server...for all of one day, maybe.”

Mimika grinned and took the other cleric’s hand, giving it a firm shake. Wow, day one and she’d already found a get rich quick scheme.

“Can do!”

The barracks of Bellview was the centre of defense within the bustling little city-town. It was the place where young men and women decided to put their lives on the line, swearing to the Guard Captain that they would spend their time training their skills and honing their talents for the sole purpose of defending Bellview. It was also where the Scouts under Tu Tauri would return with whatever intel they could muster from outside the city walls in hopes that this knowledge could be used to better protect their homes.

And what respect does such a location get from the newly arrived players of Thalam? As the faekind player Neres opened the building’s door and stepped inside, she would be swiftly responded with four heavily armored individuals charging at her from different angles. Before she could react, the girl would be dogpiled upon, each guard pinning her down to the floorboards, the largest one pressing an iron-reinforced knee into her back. It was different than normal combat, though she seemingly was - as her health slowly depleted slowly down and down, and down until it stopped at a meager ten points.



It wasn’t long until another player slipped in behind her, though a good hundred or so players watched the two players enter - they smartly watched from a distance to watch and see how it plays out. The dwarf player would watch as the person they followed was pinned down by the protectors of the town, though they also were not so lucky, as a towering behemoth of a guard standing seven feet in height had made his way to the loud commotion and quickly stepped into the fray dropping a reinforced fist upon the dwarf’s head - the weight of the clenched hand would be enough to knock the dwarf flat onto their ass or perhaps incapacitate them completely.



The ruckus would alert both people of authority within the building, Tu who was within her office heard the loud thuds and clammors of people - but simply hummed in response and returned to dipping her quill into an inkwell and scripting upon the parchment before her. “[i]I hope we get some worthwhile adventurers in today./i]” a sinister smirk raising from cheek to cheek as she uttered the words quietly to herself. Captain Fumb, a mysterious figure, nobody even knows what he looks like beneath that tin-can helmet of his - but he was actually working with some new recruits on combat training in the small training grounds they had behind the building. After the two were detained, the guards would silently open the door and toss the two out toss them out. No weapons, no skills, the guards were just on another level compared to the players that even while holding back and engaging them - the two were left at nearly zero health. What a world they lived in, eh? IF they were quick enough with their senses they would notice that the guards actually had a class associated with them beneath their NPC name very similar to that of players Guardsmanp. But nonetheless, they left beaten within inches of their life and left out to try directly outside the turn-in location of the Tutorial Quest of a game which had just released. What a game, it really didn't pull its punches.

---

The small girl quickly turned to look towards the mage, grimacing at the appearance of an Imperial man in their city acting so friendly. "One copper for a slice, five for a loaf. We've also got some cheese for the bread, but that'll raise you another five copper, but it's really going to transform the taste!" Angie's salesmanship was stronger than her disposition towards others, all paled in comparison to the great and mighty coin!

Lothair smiled at the ambitious, young entrepreneur. She kind of reminded him of himself when he was younger. Lothair fished out two copper coins and replied "Just one slice for now, but if you're up for it. I'm pretty new to the town. Mind showing me around the town for a bit for a little bit to get yourself another coin? You look like you know the place well and I'm trying to find a certain Tu person to hand in a quest. Anything else interesting in the town that you think would be helpful for an aspiring adventurer like me would be appreciated... might even be more coin for you if its really fantastic."

"Ahhh? There's guides in town pal. If you want my expertise for thart sorta stuff, it'll run you more than a handful of copper. You have any silver? The Adventurer's Guild Secretary here is my older sister." Angie flashed her toothy smile to the mage, though would quickly snap from her wit and jump up attempting to swipe the two copper from the man's hand. She would then wink at him playfully, stepping back for a moment before speaking. "There's lots of new adventurers in town - nothing makes you special Mr. Imperial. Though, I will sell you some bread!"

Lothair chuckled and replied "Never claimed to be much more than a potential customer. Still, thank you for the little bit of information, Miss." as he lowered his hand to give the girl the two copper coins. "Now, I at least know who to come to for fresh bread in the morning. Pleasure to meet you, my name is Lothair." as Lothair reached for a handshake as well. He planned to wrap up the conversation and try to get the little girl's name. The Adventurer's Guild seemed like a good place to go to. Someone there could probably help Lothair meet with this Tu fellow.

"Angie Sanguiram, make sure you tell any adventurers you see that my bread is the best or I'll tell the guards you made a move on me." The young girl's hand reached out to shake Lothair's hand, clasping it delicately with her small hand. "And if you decide you're willing to drop a silver on some guidance, I'm your gal! But yeah, adventurer's guild is right next to the entrance of town - the building is too large to not notice." She smiled and nodded the man off before turning on her heel to walk away and continue selling to adventurers.

Lothair waved at the girl as she continued on her way. James on the other hand, decided to follow Angie's advice and check out the Adventurer's Guild and began to make his way to the large building and see if he could find some information there about Tu or anything else that seemed interesting.

As the mage entered the large redwood building he would find that it was filled to the brim with NPC adventurers sitting at tables with steins of ale, there were women in cute uniforms perched against the walls standing in attention awaiting someone to approach them and ask for information. The tavernkeep was an eldlerly man, muscular and tall, grayed hair, whereas the Guild Secretary who sat at a desk near stairs that were gated off simply glanced around the room making sure to keep the peace.

---

A few moments later...

---

After talking with one of the girls at the Guild Hall, Lothair stepped out of the giant Guild Hall where the helpful lady pointed out that he would find a guard standing by. He approached the nearest one and began to speak "Hello Guardsman, one of the ladies working at the Guild Hall told me that I should speak with you. She recommended that I speak with Tu and a certain Guardsman Fumb at the barracks. Would you mind bringing me to them? I have a quest to turn in to Tu and well... the lady told me I could find more work there as well."

@SilverPaw@Aviaire@Heyitsjiwon@Cu Chulainn

---

As most of the players moved into and throughout the town of Bellview, they were hit with a roadblock. The barracks, where their tutorial quest completion arrow was guiding them, was mobbed with players and NPCs of all kinds, and entering it willy-nilly was grounds for a guardsman beat-down. Still, some of the clever players found a way in.

Vesper, the Fae ranger, was guided in by one of the many guards found about town. If the tall blonde guardswoman was one for words, it would have been obvious she was happy to do it. Bellview was in dire need of more hands to take on quests, and any adventurers that simply asked a way in would find one.

Neres, another Fae, would find her way in by screaming in the middle of a shopping plaza for aid. Many passerbys stared at her tussled clothes and hair and simply laughed in her face. Even some of the town guides and guardsman, whose job it was to lead players into the barracks, jeered at her and turned away. The guild didn't need such... low-level troublemakers! After some time, an unscrupulous looking guide approached the woman.

"I'll get you in, but yer gonna owe me."

Ukkonen, already a semi-infamous rouge rogue, explored the town with an eye and ear out for the things that interested him most: getting into the barracks to turn in his quest, and any sign of how to advance his class. It wasn't long until he heard the commotion of Neres shouting. A quick peek in that direction, and he might have just found two leads at once.

Lothair, for his part, was also one of the clever players to ask around the guildhall and find a guard to lead them in. The guardsman looked Lothair up and down for a moment before he nodded. "Sure, you look capable enough. Follow me." With that, the guard hefted his spear and started off toward the barracks. He made some light conversation as they traveled, but it wasn't far.

The inside of the barracks, though one of the four had briefly seen it already, was made of brick and stone. It might have been called 'cozy' if the tensions within weren't running high. There were guardsman pacing about, some chatting nervously, but some not bothered at all by whatever had their comrades disturbed. A few of the guardsman recognized Neres and gave her the stink eye, but didn't try to throw her out again.

"Tu's office is right at the end of the hall," the guardswoman said to Vesper and the group at large, "Good luck." With that, she and the other two guides exited the barracks, leaving the players alone to venture down the hallway. Once inside, Tu Tuari Al herself - identified by those that still had their quest arrows turned on - leaned against her desk. She had a sly grin on her face as she sized the group up.

"Finally! Do ya know how hard it's been to find good help these days? Here, gimmie those jellies ya should have brought and take one of those." She gestured to a pile of little badges on her desk. They were barely an inch (2.5cm) across, and somehow clipped easily onto any kind of armor should the players want to display them. Upon entering the inventory, the badges were named: Tutorial Completion Badge!

"Slimes might have big health pools, but they're easy pickings. I need people I think can handle an actual fight. We've had a bit of a... wolf problem recently. If you complete this quest, come back and we'll talk. By the way, those badges should get ya back into the barracks with no problem."


"Got it? Good. Any questions, ask Fumb out front. Big armored guy, can't miss 'im. Break a leg out there." And just as quickly as they were ushered in, the players were sent back out. Tu was the quest giver, certainly, but she had no time for greenhorns. Fumb and the rest of the guardsmen would take care of them.

To Lothair's surprise, a familiar group of people found their way to the barracks. "What a coincidence." He commented to the group as theycwere led into the building. Lothair looked around the barracks and was impressed it was a cozy, sturdy building, very well designed. The devs took a lot of time with the artwork and paid attention to the little details.... or maybe... this was just designed by the NPCs? If so the AI was VERY intelligent to be able to do some serious architecture and interior design. This game world was HUGE. If the entire game was this well-designed... James couldn't help but wonder how many hours developing all this took as Tu Tuari Al began to speak to the group with natural charm and convincing personality.

Lothair equipped the little badge that they had received though it seemed more like a cosmetic item like his cape as it difn't seem to have stats based on his cursory look. Still, it would likely help him stand out in the wave of new adventurers. Lothair looked around for this Fumb fellow. Every guard seemed pretty big and armored, but then he spotted one who seemed particularly big and armored. Lothair approached the man and said "Hello Captain Fumb. I'm Lothair. I was asked to help with the wolf problem that the city is having and wanted some advice as Tu Tuari Al pointed me to your direction if I had any questions. So, I was hoping to find out where the wolves are, and learn a bit about them before I set off. If you have a bit if time, I would love to learn things like: How do they fight? Anything I should look out for? And what's going on that the city is suddenly having wolf problems? Are they a pack that just happened to recently migrate here?"

Lothair also made a mental note to visit the market to see if he could get new equipment before setting out to fight the wolves. He got some coin from the slime mission after all.