Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.
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Swamy lifted his head from the test he was writing. They had found that today was a surprise test day. He thought about how to answer the questions, which asked for an opinion or an argument, rather than a correct answer. Virtual reality was a complex and deep subject involving as much of the psychological as the physical aspects. After all it was not only a discussion of how to apply physical laws on to the virtual reality, but it was also a question of how much to limit it by those laws. For example, games allowed people to fly. If you followed physical laws you would need to have hollow bones to make you lighter and a streamlined body structure like a bird. Unless ofcourse you had the ability to turn into a jet plane or a bird using metamorphosis. Which became another argument of limiting the laws.
It was this flexibility that allowed people to separate reality and virtual reality adding imagination in their concept of world creation.
Though if you have open ended questions like, 'describe your feelings' or 'how do you think', it became more of a matter of psychology than science.
Swamy finished writing. He checked his answers for any mistakes and read it again to make sure his point was coming through in the answers. After making a couple of changes, he read it again. Satisfied, he stood up and walked towards the teachers desk with his answer sheet in his hand. He put it on the desk and walked out of the classroom. He breathed a sigh of relief coming out and headed to the cafeteria. They had free period next, as the prof had come down sick, so classes would resume after lunch.
In the loud and noisy cafeteria, he soon found a group talking loudly having four of the loudest people he had met. Even the girls seemed to shout out their opinion across the table at times. Swamy simply took a seat next to them and opened his lunch.
"Ah homemade as always Swamy. Your Aunt must dote on you."
"Yeah, she is really nice too."
And with the short comment they began their loud discussion on the test. That too, soon changed as all of them finally realized that they would have to agree to disagree. And the talk switched to Long Island.
"I finally learned cooking!" said Himali. "It was really hard to impress the old man Goffam, the cook I got the quest from, but I finally succeeded with an apple pie."
"Congrats. Ah I wish I have your luck. I have been trying to learn tailoring but so far no success. Rajan got his quest from a different tailor and he's succeeded already. Maybe it is easier to learn from some people than the others." Sneha complained.
"Could be. I also haven't impressed the blacksmith so far, maybe I will give up and get the quest from some other blacksmith." Manish agreed.
"You can't do that. Didn't you read the posts? I guess you didn't. Once you get a skill quest from one, you cannot get the same skill quest from any other, even if you drop it. They simply don't agree. Ofcourse I don't know if this rule applies to npcs of other locations but in the village, once you start to learn from one, no other blacksmith will allow you to learn from them. You have to go back to the one you started with. Don't know why, but they would like exclusive student teacher relationships, I guess." the information house of our group Rajan spoke.
"Are you serious!! Man that sucks big time!"
"Yeah, this guy learned first hand and posted. It looks like a lot of people were on the verge of dropping and some actually did and were trying at other places, but this post changed everything. Its the most popular post in the forums right now."
"So you are stuck with the npc you choose till you learn or drop! And like if you can't get out of the village, you can't know if you can learn from somewhere else. So you can't drop it either!"
"Ah! That's harsh Manish. We will now have to choose who we learn from carefully. So what other information you got Rajan?" asked Himali.
"Hmm, lets see.." saying which he got out his cellphone and started to look at his information notes as he called it. "There seems to be a lot of people joining the battle schools and magic schools, and they say that learning is pretty hard as well. Battle school is pretty difficult in itself and requires you to hit the dummies with instructors coming in and helping with their forms occasionally. But most of it is hitting the training dummies. No information of anyone having got the strength stat."
He looked at a bit more ...
"Ah this is the one I wanted to talk about. Magic is different in this game. Seems like it is not based on Intelligence like other games as we all got that stat. Also there seems to be an age limit of 9 to enter the magic school. But those who join do not immediately learn magic. They are given books to read. A lot of stuff about channeling and perceiving, etc which I didn't understand. And they have to train their body as well for some reason."
"So did anyone learn magic already?"
"Hmmm well the post only says so much. The girl who posted it is still doing the reading. Though a few people should have reached age 9 by now. In any case, it will be interesting what people do find when they actually learn magic.
Oh! and there seem to be people putting up price lists of all items in all the starting villages. It seems like the economy might rise as people have started earning money."
"As expected of the information house. Good job Rajan!" Sneha said teasingly.
Swamy listened to everything as usual, not saying much.
Swamy excused himself, saying he had to go somewhere for a while and left the table.
"Alright see you later in class, Swamy!" and everyone went back to their talks.
Swamy started walking towards the sound rooms in the music department. He had gotten some extra time today and he thought of practicing a bit more. He was still age 5 in the game. Infact his age hadn't increased since he left the village. And he still hadn't learned cooking or flute till now. He did feel that impressing Lady Altia was tough. She never complained about the food, so Swamy could never say what was wrong with it. Another of those things he will realize as he experiments. And ofcourse playing the flute seemed to get harder as he kept remembering Lady Altia's notes of that night.
But so far Swamy had never thought of changing teachers. Even if he hadn't found out about this restriction he would still have tried to impress Lady Altia. Which is why he was practicing in that empty sound room, in the extra time he got. And what's more his training in the game had got doubled.
Swamy shuddered a little as he remembered the last two weeks. Ever since Lady Altia decided to double his training, two weeks in real life had passed. And on every day of those two weeks, he discovered a new kind of hell.
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Raka was trying to block for his life.
The first time sparring after he got the strength stat, Lady Altia was surprised at his sudden increase in power. Every strike he made went 'THWACK' instead of the light 'thump' it was making earlier.
"Oh how wonderful!! Seems like I can start really training you!" saying which she now started to counterattack. Raka had to constantly move to strike and block. If he didn't block, he would get hit. If he stopped striking, she would start increasing her speed and he would get hit. In a side effect, his Endurance increased.
'Its quite painful', Raka thought looking at his increasing Endurance stat. Ofcourse to keep increasing it, he had to always experience pain which Lady Altia delivered in increasing effectiveness. Everytime he thought that the pain had lessened, like she knew, she struck a little harder than before and the pain continued.
By now they had moved on to complex movements with both sides blocking and striking and side steps to avoid. Atleast he was doing that. Lady Altia seemed to not care and simply blocked. He moved to strike another time, when she pointed her stick towards him and moved back a step as he was about to connect. And as soon as his staff passed downwards, she moved forward hitting him on the chest like piercing with a sword. Raka grunted in pain and took a few steps back and immediately raised his staff to block her second attack.
"How did you like that? This move requires precision but if you do it correctly, your opponents attack becomes your attack."
"Y..yes Master!"
"Alright then your turn."
THWACK and Raka got hit on the head.
"Judge your distance well, your opponent is moving towards you after all!"
And so on so forth the training continued. He really regretted not learning martial arts before; he could have saved himself a lot of pain.
Ofcourse he still had to climb the hill, like 10 times now and practice his forms for double the time apart from all the sparring. It went on for almost two weeks in real life, almost a month and a half in the game. And this time, Lady Altia never missed the day he would log in. Even when he came in early, he would find her sitting there or practicing her sword waiting for him.
Not that it made it any better. Sometimes he even thought fighting that one horned rabbit a couple of times might be better than this.
So two weeks after, Raka was still sparring with Lady Altia.
He moved his staff fluidly blocking, dodging and striking, being blocked and then moving again to block or dodge. He was getting into a rhythm now and his staff rotated, revolved, struck and pushed onto his opponent when he suddenly side stepped, and charged holding his staff like a knight lance, at the very end. This sudden movement caught Lady Altia by surprise and he thought that it might finally hit her, when she took a step to the side and completely dodged it. A return THWACK and he was pushed to his knees by the pure force he felt on his staff as he blocked, and then Lady Altia disappeared. The next moment he felt intense pain from his back where she struck and he fell down face up.
"Wonderful!! That strike back there was quite nice. Seems you have absorbed the training well. Now get up!"
Raka struggled on to his feet and raised his staff at the ready. He knees wobbled from the strain but his eyes said, he won't give up.
Lady Altia looked at him with smiling eyes.
"Trainee Raka. Please stand at attention!" she said in a formal tone.
Raka stood in attention holding his stick to the side.
"Trainee Raka. I hereby declare that you have successfully completed the level 1 warrior training course of the Ilmentia nation, Gurrow village Battle training school! Congratulations!"
"Thank you Master....um Lady Altia" Raka added trying to keep to the formal routine.
"Tell me, what is a warrior's objective?"
Raka thought for a bit.
"To do good in the world!"
"And how do you define what is good and bad?"
"Um by the people you protect!"
"But what if the people you want to protect, engage in war and you have to kill people "
"Um....I don't know!"
"So what is the warrior's weapon?"
Raka thought of answering staff, sword, etc but he didn't feel that was the right response in this situation.
"I don't know!"
"Exactly. For a warrior, right and wrong are just two sides of the same coin. After all, right for one will mean wrong for the other. A warrior's primary weapon is strength not power. If you look at it, even someone weak as you can kill a one horned rabbit when it is injured. Do you feel guilty that you have killed someone or something that tried to end your life. You don't. Do you feel scared! Ofcourse you do. But you retain the ability to move. That is strength.
Power will come as you grow older and wiser. Your strength comes from within.
A warrior's true value lies in the strength he has, the courage to use that strength and the will to improve. We call this a warrior's honor! When you receive anything from a warrior you respect, you always accept it with honor."
"So I offer, again, my congratulations trainee Raka!"
Raka knew he was supposed to say something. He felt the clue to be in the words he had just heard. Deciding, he replied.
"I accept your congratulations with honor!"
Lady Altia smiled once again.
"By the way this is also the school motto and its tradition. When you receive anything from the school, you always say that you accept it with honor" said Lady Altia returning to her usual tone of voice.
"Now that its over, lets return back to the village. He he he, and now that I think about it, we still don't know how fast you can run back to the village now, do we!" and Raka could swear her eyes were twinkling!!
He shivered. He could almost pity the next poor soul who gets trained by her.
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The guards at the gate of Gurrow village looked at the distance at a dirty torn toga clad young man who seemed to run like someone had set fire behind him. He was running like if he didn't get to the safety of the village, something dangerous might gobble him up. The guards at the tower who noticed him first, raised the alarm and about ten guards came ready carrying long spears and clad in armor. They got in formation in front of the gate hoping to stop whatever was chasing that young man. The guard captain climbed on to the guard tower to have a better look. He looked for quite a while, and then called everyone inside and ordered them back to their jobs. This was not a danger to the village.
'Well if it was, its not like these greenhorns can handle her' chuckling the guard captain returned back to the guard office.
Raka saw the village gates in front of him as he smiled. His ordeal was over or atleast that's what he thought.
'Now in reflection it wasn't so bad. It had a lot of painful moments, but I raised a lot of my stats and there were some pleasurable moments as well' thought Raka thinking about the cooking, the flute playing and ofcourse the bath. It seemed that Lady Altia liked to take a bath once in a while, and at the hill, the lake enjoyed her company and Raka, who waited for such moments.
'Well it wasn't so bad after all. But I should look forward to a new day!'
Raka entered the village.
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You have grown. Your Age is now 9.
Age restriction applied.
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'My age has increased by 4? And what's up with the age restriction?!'
"Master, is there a restriction of age for leaving the village?"
"Hmm, yes there is."
"What is the restriction?"
"Oh anyone below 14 cannot leave the village. The monsters around here are strong so they would not be able to handle them."
'Eh! But he got out at age 5.'
"Um master, how did I get out?"
"He he he now that's a secret. But I guess you will find out sooner rather than later. I will let Verina handle that."
"Does it have something to do with Lady Verina?"
"Hush now, you always ask so many questions. Be patient, lil eggplant."
Raka was pleasantly surprised to hear her call him 'lil eggplant'. A while ago she had stopped calling him that. It was not like he missed it, but hearing it again felt nice.
'So all roads lead to Lady Verina.' Seems like she had most of the answers he wanted.
When Raka had left Gurrow village, the village street was empty. Everyone was holed in the library trying to learn the language of the island. When he came back, he saw so many people, bustling about here and there. Raka had been following the forums so he knew that people were looking for quests and learning skills. However to see so many people all of sudden after spending so much time alone or with Lady Altia, left him shocked. And a little disoriented. He did not know where to go like he had forgotten where everything was. Lady Altia gently patted him waking him up from his shock. They walked together to their destination, the Battle school.
They reached the school and entered. As he expected he saw several players hitting the training dummies with their staff. Nathan and the other instructors made rounds to check once in while and correct their forms and so. Some people were pretty good, moving naturally, while others seem to be learning from the beginning as Raka had.
'These must be the ones who know martial arts in real life. Knew I should have learned as well!' thinking this and that, they proceeded inside. Raka also headed to the training ground with Lady Altia as if it was natural.
"Ah Lady Altia, you are back!" greeted the instructors as they noticed them. Even some of the students bowed and greeted her, "Welcome back Lady Altia!"
"Hello everyone, how is it going?" She replied at their greetings.
"Everything is fine! We were expecting you to come today. There are a couple of messages but none of them important", said Nathan when he finally realized that Raka was standing behind her.
"Ah, and who is he? Is he a new trainee? Boy, you forget your manners!"
Raka inwardly laughed at the irony and simply bowed and greeted him.
"Hello, Nathan".
"Eh, you know my name. Has it become famous already! And what is up with your clothes. You look like you came up from the hills....." saying which Nathan closely looked at him. And then he was shocked enough to let his mouth hang open.
The other instructors and students all looked at his strange behaviour!
"My Goddess, you are alive! I thought you had disappeared forever!" finally realizing who he was. Ofcourse Raka didn't expect Nathan to remember him, for he had only seen him for a few minutes. But he was glad that he did.
"I survived with honor!" said Raka and Nathan and the other teachers understood.
"And with lots of luck!" he added as an afterthought at which the Nathan and others laughed. Even Lady Altia smiled proudly. Or that's what he hoped. He was never sure when the devil might make a visit.
"Congratulations Raka!" and the other instructors finally remembered that day when one toga clad of Goddess's children had come asking for training from Lady Altia and she had accepted.
'I think they did not expect me to return!' he thought looking at the instructors faces.
"He he he well anyway, my student is still alive and as you see well enough. Though he looks a little forlorn in those ragged clothes. Nathan, do you think we can manage to give him some slightly better ones?" Lady Altia asked while smiling. Nathan nodded as if he understood, but replied,
"I am sorry. As we did not expect him, we did not prepare. It will take a little while Lady Altia."
"Hmmm. It cannot be helped. Even I wasn't sure till today."
Then she turned towards Raka and said,
"Well Raka, I am sorry but it looks like you will have to visit the battle school again for your graduation formalities. I will send out word later when we are ready."
"Alright!" Raka nodded. He wasn't going anywhere anyway. He thought to visit the magic school after this.
"See you later then. I want to go home and freshen up. Please continue with you training everyone!" and Lady Altia left. After bowing to the other instructors Raka followed after her intending to head to the magic institute.
Ofcourse the other students who did not know him, wondered who he was to be talking so friendly to the instructors and more importantly to Lady Altia, the head of the battle school. They all had been introduced to her as the head when they joined or soon after. Sometimes she even made rounds like other instructors, but mostly it was the other instructors who oversaw their training. Lady Altia always seemed to go away every few days, which gave an impression that she was a really important person, who was assigned important missions or went to the capital regularly to meet important people, maybe even the king or queen, etc. Ofcourse her beauty counted as a plus as well.
Realizing that, a lot of them had asked for her instruction hoping to increase intimacy and become friendly with the head of the school, and probably also getting important quests in the future. She had not refused anyone's request and trained them the same way as the other instructors. However, when they asked her to become their teacher, she had refused till now.
"Did she say 'my student'? It wasn't just my ears right?"
"Yeah she did. And I think his name was Raka."
"So she had a student, but wait a minute, didn't they say that they had to do graduation formalities?"
"Yes! So that means..."
"Oh my God!! This is huge"
"I better tell my friends..."
"Wait lets follow him, we could ask him how he did that?"
They quickly came outside but lost him in the crowd of people moving about.
"Does anyone remember how he looked like?"
"All I can remember is that he was wearing ragged clothes..."
"So no one actually remembers his face....oh no we lost him"
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Soon people started logging out, posting on the forums.
"Hey, there's this guy who graduated from Battle school in Ilmentia Island. His name is Raka. And guess what, he was the student of the Lady Altia, who's the head of the school. We could not get a good look at him, but he had returned with Lady Altia, maybe from her trips."
"What?!! really!! So someone has been outside the village already? Did he perhaps get the stats? If he trained under the head of Battle school, maybe he got the strength stat too??"
"Please Mr. Raka, tell us how you did that?"
"Is that really true? sounds like someone's playing a prank on other's trouble"
"Its really true. I was there training in the battle school as well, when Lady Altia suddenly showed up with this raggedly clothed guy. He was carrying a stick too. Looking at them it looked like they had been in a battle or a long journey!"
"Long journey?? And a stick you say? Did they have to climb somewhere, or maybe he used it as a walking stick to walk a long distance, perhaps the capital!!"
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And the forums exploded, each person coming up with their own reasonings and explanations.
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Unknown to what was happening in the real world, Raka walked quickly to the Magic Institute to meet with Lady Verina. She had promised to train him once he finished Lady Altia's training. Raka just hoped she would remember. Like Nathan, if she didn't he might be in trouble.
The Magic Institute was located, not on the main street, but a little inside a side street. It was a magnificent building quite unlike the battle school. Made of what seemed to be marble and stone, with painted tiles on the floors, the building was donned mostly in white. Being in the quiet side street, it stood out even more compared to the resident dwellings close to it.
'Must be rich!' was the only thing coming to mind.
Raka went up some stairs which were built on its taller base connecting to the ground and walked in through some tall doors.
"These doors seem like they will stop a cannon and whats up with these pillars, they are like a work of art!" Raka exclaimed when he saw thick doors through which he will be entering and the pillars surrounding it.
He entered into a very large hall. If the battle school's hall consisted of just the basic items, this hall was empty, consisting of just a bell rope which went up...towards a bell.
'Should I ring the bell? or should I wait for someone to come?' Raka did not want to give a bad impression on the very first day but after waiting for 5 minutes, and not seeing anyone, he pulled on the bell rope.
CLANG CLANG TING, the bell sounded like church bells.
Raka waited while the bell sounds slowly died down becoming softer and softer.
A woman wearing an exquisite white dress, reaching down to her ankles and tied with a cloth belt came out to greet him.
"Hello my name is Cynthia! Pleased to meet you! Are you here to join the magic institute?"
"Yes, I am. But I was hoping to meet Lady Verina first, if possible."
"I am sorry, but Lady Verina does not teach new students. She teaches students from the intermediate level. However please do not worry, we have some excellent teachers. I am sure one of them would be happy to take you as their student."
Raka was confused.
"Um I understand but I would still like to meet Lady Verina first."
"As I said before she does not teach new students. Is there something wrong with your ears?" Cynthia seemed to be getting angry.
"I apologize if I said something rude but Lady Verina did say to me that she would teach me. If you could ask her, I am sure she could clarify the situation!"
"Please!" he insisted.
"I am sorry if I find that hard to believe. Lady Verina is a respected and noble person who is the head of one of the best magic schools on the island. She would not promise a beggar like you anything. Please leave." saying which she waved him towards the door.
"Please, could I talk to her. Just for 2 minutes would be fine. Please!" Raka begged.
"Even if she wanted to talk to a filthy beggar like you, she has gone out of the village and will return next week." Cynthia was definitely angry by then.
His hopes dashed, for the moment Raka decided to leave the place and avoid getting into the worst case scenario. He simply thanked her, turned around and left.
'Now what should I do!' Raka still had a few hours left till the shops close and the people of the island retire to their homes. Deciding to think while he ate something, he headed to Neona's store. As he expected, lots of people, players and npcs were coming and going. Her store became quite popular because of Neona's friendly nature. People of the island used to visit her before as well, but the players finding it easy to talk to her seemed to come even more.
'I can understand' Raka thought. Neona was a treasure trove of information after all. A lot of players would be deeply interested in learning about this world, and increasing intimacy with her at the same time. Waiting for it to be less crowded, Raka waited outside her shop for a while. Soon a group of players left the shop, leaving it empty for a little while. Seemingly they were playing together and now that they could earn some money through the quests, they could buy Neona's delicious food.
Raka pushed the door clinking the bell she hung on the door. Neona seemed to be doing her books and she looked up from it greeting her new customer.
"Welcome to.....ah! its you Raka! You have been gone so long, I thought you forgot all about me. How are you?"
"I am fine. And no I did not forget you. I was just training with Lady Altia."
"Oh really! That's wonderful. If you could wait for a bit, I will close shop. I already sold all the things I made." saying which she got up and closed the door, setting up a closed sign on her display window. She put her books in order and put them in a drawer with her earnings, which she locked.
"Please come inside. I haven't invited you to my home yet have I!"
Raka walked in with her to the stairs. He ascended to find the most lovely home, decorated with hand made things and pretty curtains. The walls were colored plain but beautiful, quite unlike the floor of the magic institute with its bold colors. There was a comfortable looking couch next to a small table covered with a white table cloth. A comfortable armchair stood beside the window, probably for her aunt, or for her if she wanted to sleep by the window. The living room, where he was standing lead down a small hallway to two other rooms. He could not see her aunt anywhere.
"Please sit down. Its a small home. Not very many guests come here."
"Its a lovely home." Raka replied.
Neona blushed a little and then headed towards what seemed to be a kitchen. Raka sat down. While he was looking around some more, he heard the gentle humming of Neona from the kitchen. He smiled.
Soon Neona came carrying a tray.
"Here is some tea and a few cookies I made. Careful, they are still in a testing phase and not ready to sell!" she teased.
Raka took the cup she offered and sipped the tea. It was delicious.
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Vitality increases by 10 for 1 hour
Satiety increases by 10.
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"Wow, this tea is good. You must be a very good cook! Check that, I know you are. Your shop sells delicious food after all!"
Neona happily said, "Thank you, you are very kind. But I can't claim all the credit. My aunt helps in making them. And my mother seemed to be a better cook than I am. My aunt could tell I am getting there but I am not there yet!"
"What are you talking about? This tea is delicious. Infact I would like to learn how to make this tea, just to drink it whenever I want. Ofcourse you have given me one more reason to visit you I suppose."
Then Raka tried one of her cookies. It definitely tasted strange. He could not decide whether it was delicious or not.
"Um seems nice" Raka said making a bit of a face. Neona started laughing. 'Was this her version of a joke'.
"Anyway Raka, you promised to tell me your stories. So how did your training with Lady Altia go?"
Thinking for a bit, Raka started telling her about his training, leaving out some bits he considered private.
Neona proved to be a good listener commenting at just the right places."Wow, I am actually surprised you survived that!", "Did you say you jumped from that height?!", "It would have been painful"......
After hearing his story, Neona sighed.
"Compared to you my troubles seem simple."
"Yeah that was tough...but wait what troubles you?"
Neona made a painful face for a bit but said, "Please don't mind. I was just thinking about things."
Raka insisted, "Please, if there is anything I can do, I will help."
Hearing that, tears started pouring from Neona's eyes. She stood up and walked a little away towards the window.
Raka was flummoxed!! He simply did not know what to do in these situations. Thinking that remaining sitting would be a disrespect, he stood up as well.
He repeated, "Neona, if there is something I can do to help, please don't hesitate to ask me!"
Neona turned around still crying and hugged him. She cried on to her chest, while Raka stood frozen, unable to even think let alone do. Finding himself in situations like these was not something he was accustomed to.
Soon, Neona calmed down.
"Thank you. I am sorry I cried." She said blushing.
Raka was still frozen. He simply nodded.
"It is actually about my aunt. She is getting old, and gets sick often. I feel sad, thinking of the day my mother died. If my aunt died as well, I will be all alone. Thinking that I often cry. Today also my aunt is feeling sick. She says she will be ok but I still fear."
Raka finally moved his stuck tongue, "Is there nothing that can help?"
"Afraid not. It is old age after all." she said as she calmed down a bit.
"But she said she was going to be okay, so I am gonna believe her. My problem however is more immediate! My aunt and I work together to cook and bake all the things for the shop. Unfortunately, she is sick at the moment and all my stuff sold out so I have to make a whole lot. So how about it. I will give you 5 coppers for the work. Will you help me Raka?
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Help Neona Cook and Bake
Neona's cooking is getting popular around the village. Lots of people come to her shop for her homemade delicacies. However she prepares all this with the help of her aunt. Her aunt has fallen sick and she cannot help Neona with the cooking. After hearing the stories you told her, she decided to ask you for help. She will pay you so that you do a good job.
Difficulty level: Requires medium intimacy with Neona
Reward: Intimacy increases with Neona,
5 coppers,
Unknown
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Raka looked at the message window.
'An unknown reward?' Well not that Raka could have refused in such a situation anyway.
"Yes, I will help."
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You have accepted the quest.
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Neona cheered up and smiled. Raka and Neona sat down to prepare all of those delicious foods she was famous for.
In the night, after the work was finished, she told Raka to wait for a bit and then brought out some old washed out clothes, correction, togas.
"Here take this. It belonged to my father, but I think it will fit you nicely. And here's your pay", and she handed him the toga and 5 copper coins, which seemed to have someone's face engraved on them.
'So the unknown reward was clothes!! Can't be helped with a 5 copper quest I suppose.'
"Well if you wanna help out some more, come again. I could always use more help in the shop, if not for the cooking."
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You have been offered a job. Neona will pay you for every hour of work you put into helping her.
The pay will vary depending on work quality.
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'Well that's something. Till Lady Verina comes back I can earn some money.' Thinking that he walked out into the dark streets and logged out.
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Swamy came out of his capsule, and stretched for a bit. He looked out the window at the full moon shining. He then went to his bed and fell asleep looking forward to a new day.