“What did you do?” exclaimed RedReaver as he rushed over as soon as Nathan returned. The others also jumped to their feet and looked to Nathan for answers.
“What do you mean?” asked Nathan.
“Come on!” scuffed RedReaver. “You leave us here doing nothing for almost an hour. We’re bored out of our minds and are debating going in after you, and then suddenly the quest completes. You must have done something!”
“The quest completed?” He checked his notifications.
[Quest Complete] Clear the mine
Mine secured: 1/1
You have ensured that the mine is safe enough so that workers can return. For now, at least.
[Quest] For completing [Clear the mine] you receive 500 XP.
[System] Your reputation with the village of the Last Valley has changed from Cordial to Friendly.
“Well, how about that? Looks like we don’t need to blow up anything after all.”
Margos walked up, looking generally content but also just a tad irritated and slightly curious. “Eclipse. What happened?”
“Well, not too much really. There are a lot of signs of fighting on the other side as well. More bodies, both kobolds and lizardmen—yeah, they're called lizardmen by the way—but spread out in this large natural cave. I followed the cave and the bodies and came upon a solo lizardman guarding a rope bridge over a deep chasm. I didn’t want to fight the dude straight up, so I spent a lot of time getting into the correct position for a surprise attack. With some luck and some trickery, I managed to get the drop on him and pushed him into the chasm. But it turns out that this attracted more lizardmen on the other side of the chasm—some of them wielding bows. Not having much of a choice, I cut the rope on this side while dodging arrows, constraining them to their side. Then I returned here. I guess that was enough to secure the mine.”
Ashira smiled. “Sounds like there were multiple ways to resolve the quest. Blow up the entrance, destroy the bridge, and if you really wanted to, you could probably clear out all the lizardmen as well.”
“Probably some other ways we haven’t thought about, too. Perhaps some solutions are unique to specific skills or classes,” Margos theorized. “Hell, given high enough charisma, you might have been able to persuade them to leave.”
“Yeah, makes sense,” Nathan agreed, a bit embarrassed. “I have to admit I didn’t even consider the last option, but it would have been cool if possible.”
RedReaver had heard enough. “Bah, who cares. The quest is done! We can leave! No point standing around. I want to get back to the village before I have to log out.”
“Sure, but leave the explosives in the box before we go. Don’t want to risk an explosion on our way back.”
They walked back up the tunnel, took the elevator up, and jogged the last distance back to the village, all of them eager to get back. When they arrived, they immediately headed for the mayor’s office.
Bruce deNile was talking with some other players when they entered, but he looked like he expected them and rushed over to shake their hands as they entered. “Here are my favorite adventurers! If you need something done, these guys will handle it. I got the notification that you completed the quest and have already sent word to the closest town that we need miners and blacksmiths. This will greatly help us put our stamp on the map and drastically improve the defense effort.”
“As I was saying, -” one of the unknown players said before he was interrupted yet again.
“Yes, yes, in a minute,” deNile waved him away. “So, you are here for your well-deserved reward, I assume? And perhaps another quest?”
Nathan sent the others a quick look. They looked wary and in need of a break. “Just the money. This quest was more difficult than we thought it would be, and honestly, not all that fun. I don’t know about the others, but I need to charge my batteries. Besides, it’s almost time to log out.”
The other mumbled agreements behind him.
“Ah, pity.” He went around to each, giving them their gold piece and a slap on the shoulder. “But know that my door is always open if you need something to do. I’ll give you first pick on any available quests.”
“We appreciate that and might take you up on it at a later date. Until then.”
As they left, they heard Bruce shift focus behind them. “Now, where were we? Right, a lot of players think they are too good to chop wood, but the truth of the matter is that not everyone has what it takes to handle anything big right out of the gate. You’ll get there in time, no doubt, but I urge you to put one foot in front of the other. Maybe you are particularly tough and can handle a goblin or five with your starter gear, but having an upgrade or two before you head out will be well worth a couple of hours with the lumberjacks.”
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They got too far away to hear the response as they headed for Ruth and her store.
“Welcome back,” Ruth greeted the group with a smile, until her eyes found Nathan. “Are you finally here for your daggers, Eclipse?”
“Ah, the daggers.” Nathan had forgotten about those and had to check if he had the money for them after receiving the quest reward. He didn’t and decided to go for a minor bluff. “I can’t remember the price you offered, but I have managed to collect 1 gold and 6 silver, and I'm prepared to give them all to you.”
Ruth didn’t look happy, but after some deliberation, she conceded. “Considering what you have done for the village, I guess that is acceptable.”
Nathan gave up the money, received the daggers, and then slotted them into the sheaths already built into his belt.
“Since that business is completed, as agreed, I will restore your normal discount.”
“Excellent, for we have some weapons we want to sell.” They’d grabbed some of the goblin weapons on their way out, but it was mostly the Lizardmen weapons that would bring in some cash, and some gems Ashira had found while looting. Nathan was a bit worried Ruth would demand the rest of the payment for the daggers as part of the sale, but that whole transaction seemed to have been forgotten. RedReaver wanted to keep the greataxe, so that left 3 greatswords and the other stuff. Ruth offered 2 gold a piece for the two-handed weapons, but another player who was in the shop offered 3 gold for one of them, so they sold that to him instead. All in all, they got 8 gold and 6 silver.
They retired to the bar to share their gains.
“How do we divide the weapons we want to keep?” asked RedReaver.
“Let’s not overthink this,” urged Nathan. “First, let’s divide the cash we have so far, which comes to 2 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze each. Nobody but you wants the axe, so if you throw in a gold for that, I think everyone is happy.”
They all agreed that that was fair before Nathan continued.
“The dagger is a bit different. I wouldn’t mind it, and I assume Ashira wants to put in a bid?”
She nodded.
“Anyone else?”
“I want it as well, but it depends on the price,” said Margos.
“We did say earlier that the share we got from the rest of the loot would be max bid. Do we still agree on that?”
“I don’t have all that much more anyhow, so I would certainly prefer that,” agreed Ashira.
“I have some gold saved up,” said Margos, “but I prefer to keep it if I can. The max is fine.”
“And I assume we are all willing to put in the max, considering the dagger is probably worth significantly more? Alright. Then we let the dice -or die- decide.” He stopped and pulled back uncertainly. “Does anyone have one?”
None of them spoke up.
“Perhaps we can draw straws?” Ashira suggested.
“We could, but then we need to head out, and I feel like dice is the traditional way to do it. Perhaps we can…” Nathan stood up from their table, leaned against his chair and looked around the establishment. “Ollie!” he yelled out. “Do you have any dice?”
The bartender looked over dumbfounded from behind his disk. “I think I have some around here somewhere. What type do you want?”
“Any would probably do.”
The group and most of the other customers followed Ollie with their eyes as he shuffled across the floor and into the back. Before he returned, most of the clientele had lost interest. “I found a ten-sided die and a cup. Here you go.”
“Thanks,” Nathan said as he accepted it and passed it to Ashira. “You’ll go first.”
“Here goes nothing!” A little bit of shaking the cup over her shoulder before she slammed it into the table and revealed a 1. “God damn it!”
Margos tried hard not to laugh. “Here, I’ll show you how it’s done”. Margos went for more of a circular motion before he smoothly brought the cup down. When he raised it, they die showed the number 4. “Hm, well, I guess I still have 30% chance. Up to you now, skip.”
Nathan didn’t want to do anything too flashy; he just gave it one quick shake, brought it down, gave everyone around the table a tight smile, and looked at their reaction instead of the result when he raised the cup. He did not expect Margos to start celebrating. Surprised, he looked down to confirm that he also got a 1.
“What does it matter if I have bad luck when your luck is even worse! Hah, I really didn’t think this would go my way, but I won’t complain.” Margos was all smiles as he pushed his part of the loot into the middle of the table and picked up the dagger.
“Considering I just bought two daggers, I probably need the gold more than another dagger, but even knowing that, I can’t help being disappointed. Ah! Ok, moving on.” Nathan did a recount of the cash and divided the bids. He himself ended up receiving an additional 1 gold and 7 bronze.
RedReaver, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet through the whole ordeal, got to his feet. “Unless there’s anything else, I’ve got to log off.”
Nathan looked up. “No, I think that is everything. I’m going to spend a day or two doing solo stuff, but if any of you come across anything exciting and need help, feel free to reach out. I’ve added you all as friends.”
They all said their goodbyes and went their way.
There was one thing Nathan had ignored for quite some time, and that was XP gains. He’d set those notifications to be ignored and hadn’t even checked if he’d received a level up or two. He wanted to check that before he logged, so he started to go through his logs.
There were a lot of entries, and as he skimmed through them, he was uncertain about the exact number, but by his count they’d killed 46 kobolds in addition to the one lizardman. He’d also received XP for the quest, so in total he’d gained 1025 XP, which was just enough to jump two levels.
[Character] You have reached level 8. Congratulations! You receive +1 hp.
[Character] You have reached level 9. Congratulations! You receive +1 hp.
