[SD:FS] Enn Pee Cee - Chapter 5

Merchant Silverwhiskers shrugs, “Oh sure, even if my Body stat isn’t the highest, I’m a high enough level that even at the weakest I could out muscle you. However, there is a difference between being stronger and being able to fight. Also, you’re travellers so as dark as it is, you can die and come back.”

Gem nods, “Fair enough. So, what will the pay be?”

Silverwhiskers smiles, “Still not going to be that much. Each trip will earn you a few gold or so depending on distance and danger.”

Samuel squints, “How is danger determined?”

Silverwhiskers, “By way of the adventurers guild and their rating.”

Samuel nods, “I can accept that. My vote is for continuing this journey.”

Gem, “Speaking of continuing the journey. How long will you be in the next town?”

Silverwhiskers gestures down the path. “We’ll get there in about, hmm, ten minutes? Fifteen? Anyway, soon enough. However, that isn’t soon enough to make it to the next town if we kept going.

“So, I’ll probably set up shop for a bit of the evening and stay the night. Then in the morning, we have to deal with the entire caravan having to gather. And I guess I should mention, the next trip will involve a couple of nights out in the wild.”

Gem grins, “Sounds fun! Been a while since I went camping.”

June, “He means we should probably go buy a sleeping mat.”

Gem shrugs, “Would it be a camping trip if you didn’t have to rush buy a bunch of things? Or was that just my family?”

Emrys, “Pretty certain most camping equipment can be used multiple times. If you camp at all, there shouldn’t be emergency purchases?”

Gem laughs, “That assumes you go camping with any frequency and store the equipment properly. Anyway, I think the starter pack included an unranked sleeping pad. Not like we could afford any of the fancy tents which wouldn’t be a pain to drag with us.”

Silverwhiskers smiles, “Well, you could always store the tent on my wagon.”

Samuel, “Until we aren’t with you anymore. We’ve decided to go with you to the ocean, but that isn’t going to last forever.”

Silverwhiskers shrugs, “You could always sell it once we get there.”

Gem rolls their eyes, “If it rains, we can just sleep under the wagon. Or maybe in a tree? I got some experience doing that with June.”

Emrys bursts out laughing, “Oh goodness gracious! That was you two?”

June sighs, “Probably.”

Emrys shakes his head, “Well, you’ll be well known back there until the next newbie gets into something. So I’d say at most a month.”

Silverwhiskers nods, “You travellers do tend to get into something or other quickly. Though most of the time it tends to be through treating us locals as less than people. Which, given where you come from, does make some sense. Makes it fun to exaggerate my response.”

Silverwhiskers face goes a bit slack, though the twinkle remains in his eyes. “What do you mean, sir? I do not understand the term enn pee cee.”

He shakes his head, “Far as I understand it, the creators specifically mention that we understand our situation. Oh sure, a regular farmer out in the field isn’t going to understand the philosophical stuff. They might not even know the entire truth, but they aren’t clueless.”

Samuel and Emrys both cringe a bit while June doesn’t react. Gem? They just shrug it off. “Oh yeah, I guess that was in the promotional material. How does it feel to be seen as a part of a game?”

Merchant Silverwhiskers guffaws, “A bit straight of you! Far as I understand, on your side there is the simulation theory. Well, for us, the theory is flipped on its head. We start at the idea that we are and poke at the concept of us not being in one.

“My personal take? Doesn’t matter. The Creators can’t come down and help. Whether we’ve been tricked to believe this or it actually is all just a game? Doesn’t matter! I live either way. This world? It is real to me and that is all that matters. Maybe someday I’ll get a chance to go outside of this place, but it won’t change my answer.”

June nods, “Each person’s reality is their own.”

With that, the group falls into silence. The topic being a bit of a heavy one and most of them now had something to think over. And soon enough, the caravan makes it to the next town. It isn’t much to look at, similar to the last town down to the distance it is from the forest.

Once inside the town, the caravan parks by the gate and the temporary guards flood away to turn in their quest at the guild. Gem and friends, on the other hand, head into the market to pick up some supplies. They did need to hand in the quest, but their group wouldn’t have been there fast enough to not get caught up in the rush.

Unnoticed by them, a certain Se’llium actually stays with the caravan.

Which, fair enough. They had a bunch of miscellaneous supplies to get. Supplies which, despite how cheap they are, Gem still ends up spending 27gp on it all. And that was despite the fact many of the things cost only one or two gold.

Though they did get some good prices by buying bulk. Not that individually they needed bulk amounts. Together, though, the group needed enough to actually get a discount from it.

From there, they stroll towards the center of the town. Not that they were sure this was the correct place to go, but they assumed the guild would be in the same general location. A safe assumption which proved to be true.

June was shocked that said guild was still packed with people. “It shouldn’t take this long to process these people! They’re all just turning in basically the same quest. That should streamline things.”

Emrys shrugs, “Shame you can’t streamline people. I’m sure more than a few people decided to be angry about something or other.”

Samuel nods, “I wouldn’t be surprised if a few ended up not paying the fee to join the caravan yet still tried to turn the quest in.”

Though in the end, they aren’t in line too long and are able to make it to an inn for dinner. Seven gold a piece got them a place to stay and food. It wasn’t fancy, but filling stew, bread, and a drink was perfectly fine with them. From there, they split off to their rooms.

Next morning, Gem woke up bright and early. Not that they needed to, the caravan wouldn’t be leaving till a good bit later. However, they wanted to get into the habit of exercising in the morning.

Well, more like a few martial arts katas and then a long walk. Even if from now on the walk would be done by way of adventure instead of hiking through a park. Since young, Gem could never get into regular exercise routines. Something about push-ups and weight lifting felt pointless to them.

Oh sure, they knew intellectually that those types of things weren’t. Nevermind the fact a pleasant walk didn’t bother them. It was just one of those quirks people and one that Gem made up for by learning a bit of martial arts. Because while a walk was exercise, it didn’t exactly do the same thing as a workout.

June is the next to wake up when Gem is only halfway through her routine. “I don’t recognize that form? Err, excuse me, that could be rude. What I mean is I know what most of the big traditions look like and it doesn’t match them. If you don’t mind sharing, what style are you trained in?”

Gem laughs, “I can tell you aren’t too familiar. Anyone really into martial arts would have seen how sloppy my form is. This isn’t anything specific. I spent a handful of years learning one style in grade school, but after that I just picked up things as I went.

“My katas are simple things I threw together over my years of gaming. Sure, this is the first FIVR game, but that doesn’t mean the attack patterns are suddenly different. Whenever I would face a memorable enemy in a game, I would analyze their routine and figure out a kata based on fighting them irl. Though I guess that will have more meaning in SoulDive. That or show how bad I am at such things.”

Samuel exits the inn and yawns, “Eh, martial arts haven’t really been a true Martial art in a while. Besides a few military styles, they all devolved into something more akin to sports. Dangerous, yes. Martial? No.”

June, “I’ve heard that one of the SAI’s goals with these games is to revive old knowledge like that. Or rather, there are a few SAI who are a fan of martial arts and so even if it doesn’t have much use in the modern world, are reviving them for fun. A lot easier to have a proper martial art when it can be used martially.”

Gem shrugs, “I’ll stick to my Katas for now. They’re more of an exercise until I can actually test them. Just send me some goblins and we can see if what I’ve figured out over the years is worth anything.”

From there, Gem takes her time and finishes yet still, Emrys hasn’t woken up yet. In fact, the party has eaten half their breakfast before he shows up.

Emrys, “I’m, yawn, up. Not late. Is there coffee?”

Samuel sighs, “The answer is the same as yesterday. You’re simply not awake enough to remember. Coffee does exist, just not here. The locals are into tea if you want that, but you said no last time.”

Emrys blocks the sun light with his arm, eyes still squinted, “No thank you. Never got used to the stuff.”

Samuel shrugs, “Well, you were awake enough when we met up with Silverwhiskers yesterday, so it should be fine.”

And it was. They finished breakfast and by the time the group got back to the caravan, Emrys had fully woken up.

Silverwhiskers actually meets with them a bit before the caravan itself. “Morning! So, I just checked the guild and it looks like the next leg of our journey is graded white. Because yes, they use the color rarities instead of letter rarities.

“Which, fair enough. If they used the letter grades people would expect them to be based on their level. They aren’t.”

June, “So, what does white represent?”

Merchant Silverwhiskers, “Well, technically, you guys aren’t strong enough for it? They saw some threat or another with a level around 20.”

“What?”, Emrys sputters, “20? We can’t handle that! It would probably strain us to fight something that is level ten.”

Merchant Silverwhiskers shrugs, “Eh, I talked to the receptionist and they saw a single threat of that level. So most things are going to be around level ten or lower. Besides, we should face more attacks and you all will be at a higher level by then.”

Gem’s tail swishes around, “That does sound fun! Besides, we won’t be at the front this time, right? Oh, but I do have to ask, why did you meet us out here? What is back with the caravan?”

Silverwhiskers grimaces, “Yeah, there is something back there. Though first I will confirm we aren’t the front wagon anymore. That gets switched around with each stop and caravans try not to let the same group stay in any one position for too long.

“Anyway, Se’llium is staying with the caravan. His carriage will be joining us. He was simply walking for the last bit because the carriage was being fixed here.”

Samuel frowns, “Well, that’s a red flag.”

June nods, “I don’t mean to insult you, but locals can have very plot based personalities. And that guy screams ‘Young Master’ like nothing else. There will be trouble.”

Merchant Silverwhiskers sighs, “Well, I wouldn’t quite go that far. Straight from the creators, we know that free will was baked into this world. I’m just ashamed that in this particular instance, the subject likely won’t prove your opinion of them wrong. Though I will point out that travellers suffer from the same delusions as well.”

Emrys sighs, “Well, nothing we can do about this. As long as we aren’t placed next to his carriage, we should mostly be fine.”

Silverwhiskers nods, “I made sure we aren’t next to them! Now let’s go to my wagon. While it takes a while to organize things, being there on time is good for one’s reputation.”

Barbarian Upbringing - Chapter 4

The Noble Isn't Leaving - Chapter 6