A young woman worked here. She, like the stall owner, didn’t wear WC clothes. Instead, she wore a long-sleeved, purple shirt, and black pants. Her black hair was tied up in a ponytail. The tie had dark black and violet feathers coming off of it that looked almost natural to her feathery hair, and an aura of wisdom encompassed her. Her eyes shined with a barely contained lilac light. At that moment, I thought I had found the most beautiful woman in the world. Around her almost lilac eyes, there was a strange pattern, that almost mirrored black scales.
Bookshelves lined the walls; stretching from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Four shelves sat evenly spaced across in the middle, and my steps cast small echoes on the gray stone floors that quickly died down when colliding against the violet drapes. A single shaft of sunlight snuck in through the glass of the door, casting a long pillar of light that cut through the darkness gathered on the floor. Strings of orbs of orange lights hung down from the rafters that held up the second floor of the building, and everything was kept immaculately clean. Not a single mote of dust could be seen dancing in the air. The smell of lavender hung in the air.
“Hello there! What are you looking for?”
The woman at the counter said in a cheery tone.
“Uh...hi.” I manage to sputter out, “I’m...I’m looking for...foraging book.”
“Ah! You’ll find Basic Foraging over there, among the other Basic Skillbooks. It’s a white book with a green plant on the front, somewhere in the middle of the shelf…”
I follow her instructions to the shelf the third shelf of four in the middle of the room. Other basic skill books like fishing, forging, hunting, tracking, and trap-making line this shelf. I glance at some of the others: basic swordsmanship was one of the books on the shelf in front of it, and I remember the words written in the letter and avoid it. I find, “Foraging in the Realms Beyond,” book, and make my way to the counter before setting it down in front of this beautiful woman.
“Is that it for you?”
I nod. Looking her in the eyes was painful.
“15,000 dollars.” She said, with a wry grin on her face.
“O...okay.”
I use the machine and walk out with my head down out of the store.
“Please come back!” The woman said.
“Y-yeah.”
Never in my life had I ever had trouble speaking to women. Why now?
It is understandable. She is of my kin after all. In the presence of absolute power and absolute beauty, losing one’s ability to speak is a given.
“What does that even mean?”
You’ll come to learn.
I walk the distance back to the inn, lean my sword by my rifle, and set the skill book on my bed. If this book acts like the last, then it’ll take me a long while to get through, and I’ll be in a trance the whole time, and I’ll be completely drained, so I decided to get something to eat, and I head back downstairs after locking my room.
“What’s a good place to eat?” I ask Oscar, the man at the counter.
“We serve stews here.” The man said, “Some folks say it’s the best in town.”
I was never a picky eater.
“What kind you got?”
“Well all kinds, there’s menus at the table there.” He points to the small bar area. “Personally I like the potato stew in a bread bowl.”
“Then I’ll have that.”
“Thumb.”
He brings out the button.
“How much is it?”
“150 dollars.”
I wince as the button bites.
“HEY, WE GOT ANOTHER BREAD BOWL STEW.” Oscar leaned back and yelled into a door hidden by shelves lining the wall.
“DAMMIT OSCAR, STOP YELLING.”
“YOU’RE DEAF, OLD MAN.”
“I’M NOT OLD, YOU’RE OLD.”
“Go take a seat, that bastard bring it out when it’s done,” Oscar said.
I find a seat near a window. A thick layer of dust blotted out the setting sun. There were a few other patrons in there with me; sitting alone, mostly. I searched through the other tasks for other stats and skills while I waited.
In Perception, I had to find 150 rare materials to raise the mastery bar by 25% and log 150 types of plant species in the encyclopedia to increase Perception mastery by 50%.
With pistols and rifles I had to shoot 1000 bullets from each for 100% mastery, in Brawling I had to kill 15 enemies without a weapon for a 75% increase in mastery. Scavenging I had to dismantle 100 items for a 33% increase in mastery and sell 100 scrap items for a 25% mastery to scavenging, and a 10% mastery to Personabnless. Should I focus on all of them? No, I don’t think it’d be possible. I suppose for combat for now I’ll focus on swords and pistols. I track the 1000 bullets from pistols and dismantle 100 items from Scavenging.
A man that looked incredibly like Oscar, walked out of the kitchen door and looked around the room until he focused on me.
“You ordered the stew bowl?”
“I did, and?”
“What’s with the attitude, boy? Just saying your food’s ready. Or do you not want it? I’m fine with throwing it in the trash.”
“No, I’m sorry.”
He brings a tin plate with a bread bowl sitting on it to my table. A spoon sits beside it.
“Don’t be an asshole, kid.” The Oscar lookalike says, “It won’t get you anywhere here.”
“Yeah, okay.”
The man scoffs and walks away, and I get a notification on my PID that my infamy in New Eden rose by 1. Who cares if I’m hated if I’m rich? I dip the spoon in the stew and put it into my mouth.
Is it any good? The voice asks me.
“It’s...it’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” I say as I dip the spoon in again.
Savory, creamy...there aren’t words enough to describe the stew. The bread was soft and buttery and complimented the stew perfectly.
...I want some.
“You are a disembodied voice. You can’t have any.’
Ah. Death is so cruel.
After finishing up the stew, I tried to apologize to the cook, but he wouldn’t believe what I said. I sighed and resigned myself to the fate of forever being hated by the mastermind who made that stew and headed upstairs.
Once in, I took my clothes off and sat on the edge of my bed to read the skill book. Images of various edible and medicinal plants; flowering plants, mushrooms, types of grasses; flash through my mind, and before I know it six hours had passed and every single bit of energy I had. I barely had enough energy to wrap the blanket around me before I slipped into a dream of plants, and beautiful ravens with violet light shining off their wings.
Comments (0)
See all