More Than A Game (Epic LitRPG adventure)

Chapter 7: Into the Village, Into the Wilderness Part 2

 "Cat got your tongue?" Lis asked amiably.

"Like you don't know. You don't mind giving me something elite?"

"My dad once told me to pay it forward," he said. "Let's head to the village."

"The scroll isn't too expensive?"

"Well, I need to go there regardless. By the way, have you forgotten anything?"

"To say thank you?"

"What do I need your thanks for? If the goblins kill you right when we get there, where will you respawn?"

"Oh, da-a-amn!" I even felt a little embarrassed. "Where's the northern gate? I had my respawn point there."

"Whatever, let's go. You can relink in the village. You'll probably die at some point anyway..."

"How will I get back from the village?"

"Well...by walking. You don't have the money or abilities for a horse yet. But it's okay, the locations between there and Aegan aren't too bad. Although there are PKers... And it's far. Or you can go to a different city—Khitskern and Fladridge are nearby.

"But I have to get back to the old man to finish my quest."

"You can finish it with someone else. They'll ask you if you've already been to another instructor, and you'll say you have. Then you just tell them what you got, and you'll finish the quest. They all have the same abilities."

After I linked to the respawn point and confirmed it by seeing the stone blink, Reineke pulled out a scroll and used it. We stepped into the portal that opened.

It left us in the middle of a village square. I could tell that it was the square thanks to an obviously communal well, a few stands, and some tongue-waggers sitting around discussing everything under the sun. Well, the respawn stone also helped. I didn't get a message with a story like, "...this village was founded by two brother hunters after a long trek through forests, mountains, and dales..." It turned out that not all settlements and sites deserved their own backstory. Or the developers were just too lazy to think one up for all the different places in the game.

The little village, from what I could tell, was small, with maybe a bit less than 40 homes. It was surrounded by a palisade wall, behind which, judging by the treetops peeking above it, was a forest. My map, which I opened as soon as we left the portal, helpfully told me that the village was called Tocbridge.

"Reineke, where are those two cities?" I asked Lis, correctly assuming that he was pressed for time.

"One is here, the other is here." He pulled his map out of his bag and pointed to them.

"Oh, wow, you have a map, too. Not just the built-in one."

"Yep. You can get one in a quest after Level 40. Or you can buy one, though they're really expensive."

"Does it show everything? The whole continent?"

"Not everything for the quests, no. You reveal it as you go along, and it shows where you've already been. The one you can buy shows everything, though, except dungeons and secret areas. But it's seriously expensive."

If someone at his level thought it was really expensive, then for me it was unthinkable. But who really cares? I had the built-in map, after all. The cities were very close. While it was a five-day walk to Aegan, the other two were just a day and a half or two days away. One was to the north; one was to the east.

"Okay, I'll see you. Send me a message if you need anything."

Reineke shook my hand and headed for the village gate. When he got there, he turned and called back, "Don't forget to do some quests!"

"I won't," I said to his retreating figure. "Tomorrow."

Afraid to trust my memory, I immediately linked to the local headstone, which is what I had decided to call the respawn points. I sat down near the well and hit the log out button. I pulled myself out of the capsule with a groan and massaged my low back.

"I'm spending too much time lying down. That's not good, I need to move around more," I said to myself. "Maybe I should call up Elvira? Maybe I should eat first. Or I could combine the two: she can come, cook, and then we could get to work. First one, then the other."

My pleasant thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing. I stepped over to the table and checked the screen—Mammoth was calling.

"Hi, Semyon Ilyich," I answered.

"He-e-ey, Nikiforov! You deigned to pick up your phone! I guess you're just drinking your life away." The boss's roars echoed across the phone line.

"Yeah, right. I'm doing what you told me to do—spending every day sitting in the game...well, laying."

"You aren't doing crap! Where's my article? Where's my article, you twerp?"

"What am I, a meteor?" My confusion was completely sincere. I'd only spent three days in there...or had it been four?

"You have a month to write a nine-part article series. Every three days, get out and write something!"

"What do you mean, nine-part series? Okay, so it may have grown a little, but not by that much. Six-part! We talked about six articles."

"Okay, fine. Six. But the first one needs to be in my inbox tomorrow morning. No matter what!"

"No matter what?"

"No matter what. Make it happen!"

"I'll figure something out," I said dejectedly and hung up the phone. I looked to see who else had called and saw that that was Mammoth's sixth call that day.

Looks like some clients of his are turning up the heat, I thought. They paid money, now they want to see some results. They should have just paid me. I'd have written the whole thing for them without ever even trying the game. This way...

But what frustrated me most was that my plans for Elvira were off. Girls and writing serious material generally go together as well as "evil" and "genius."

After scarfing down some pelmeni, I sat down at my computer and confidently typed in my title: "A New World for Millions."

I hammered away until 2 a.m. The article didn't turn out too badly, and Mammoth would be happy, at least, with the gold-star treatment I gave Raidion. I brushed my hair back and said, "Nice work, nice work. Genius! A star in the modern literary firmament."

And with my debt paid, I went to bed with battle waiting in the morning...again...

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