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[RaynaFon]

Loki woke up in her sleep from the sound of receiving a message. Opening her eyes, Loki read the message from the one eye that wasn't covered by hair. Sighing she typed back to him.

"Come on Mahan, it's not even 8 in the morning yet. Cut me some slack. Plus, Yuna is right here sleeping next to me; doesn't look like she's getting up yet."

Yawning, Loki noticed she had another message so she opened it.

Daily earnings: 108,000

Notice: Shop without able manager. Please assign a new manage or manage shop in person.
City of Light potion store
​

Laying back down, Loki closed her eyes. Sigh, mornings are the worst. There's way to much to do, and not enough motivation to do it. Loki figured she should wake Summer up and head downstairs, but continuing to sleep next to her sounded like a better idea, so once again she gave into what she wanted. Loki realized that this seemed to be a pattern whenever Yuna is involved, and chose to tactfully ignore any warning her brain was giving her. It'd be fine right? Of course.


Rita looked at the chain mail man confused. Turn of phrase? She had never left the forest before so she she figured it was something humans said. Kah'Ner was right, humans were an odd race. She listened to the two men talk back and forth until Mr.Chainmail picked up the sword.

"Ah...are you going to be ok using that sword Mr.Chainmail? It seems a bit heavy...I think your friend might be right. Your body height doesn't seem suited for a big sword like that one."

Rita looked at Mr.Chainmail with worry as he held the sword on his shoulder.

Quinlan63 Sizniche Summer Breeze

 

[Quinlan63]

Plinto had woken from his slumber to the alert that he had a message from Mahan to come down early. It was earlier than they normally got up but he saw no problem with this since it was a good way to take full advantage of the whole day. He messaged back saying that he would be down soon. After putting on equipping his gear head out the door down the stairs where he found that Mahan and Shade were waiting. And they weren't alone but just happen to be with a purple haired girl of some kind. According to his HUD it said she was an elf but that was hard to believe.

Someone must really like unique character designs to create her.

"Good morning you two," he said as he sat down at the table with them. "Got the message so where are the others? I thought they would of gotten down here by the time I did."

Sizniche RaynaFon Summer Breeze

 

[Sizniche]

"What? Noooo, it's fine, it's not like this ga—arm is going to actually have muscle strain, right? Right?" Max strategically avoided referring to this as a 'game' in front of the NPC, though he emphasized his use of the word 'right' as if asking Mahan for an answer. Then, Plinto came out of his inn room asking about the others, around the same time Max and Mahan received private messages from Clancy.

"Well, Plinto, Clancy is..." he said, opening up the message: "I'm a bit tied up at the moment, It'll be a while before I'm there."

"Clancy is probably still out grinding, probably bit off more than he could chew. I wonder what his level will be when he gets back." Max then glanced at his own level, only to realize that, since he spends all his time at the forge, he was still level 3.

"Man, I have some leveling up to do; I might go out and grind with Clancy."

Max then sends Mahan a message in private chat, as to avoid alarming the NPC;

"Mahan, is it normal for the AI personalities to be this complex? This is honestly beginning to concern me."

It was more than just about concern, though; Max had more than a few thoughts about the world, and some solid answers might bolster his theories.

Quinlan63 RaynaFon

 

[Quinlan63]

"Uhhh......" Mahan wasn't really certain since they weren't in their real bodies. But he was pretty sure that if Shade didn't start to get stronger h might run into this problem plenty of times. "It might be better to be safe than sorry."

As Plinto came down and asked about the others he got the message from Loki saying that she didn't want to come down yet. Without thinking h messaged her back. "Loki seriously it's not even that early. Get out of that bed so we have things ready for Yuna when she wakes up." Really he couldn't get why all of a sudden she was choosing to be lazy when this was all for the sake of celebrating Yuna's birthday. Which she was also the one the most excited to about such an occasion.

"Loki seems to be trying to take it easy," he replied. "Hopefully she will get here before Yuna otherwise any chance of surprising her is out of the question."

After Shade mentioned his level and Mahan could not even think of mentioning how much he wished that he had stayed with them. Otherwise he wouldn't even be saying that and would be way higher in level by now. Then he got the message about the AI personalities.

"Yeah they were suppose to so that you could feel that you were in a real-life fantasy world. But I must say that you are right to be concerned since without the information from the HUD even I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Normally only really important NPCs are suppose to be this way and I don't have a clue who this elf girl is."

RaynaFon Sizniche Summer Breeze

 

[RaynaFon]

Loki grumbled when she heard a reply response from Mahan. Sitting up on the bed she sat still for a few moment, fighting the urge to lay back down. The thought of putting her scythe through Mahan's head might have gone through her head, once or twice maybe. Even if she knew it wouldn't do even 1/4 of Mahan's hp in damage, it would probably still feel good.

Sighing, Loki opened her eyes and got up. Dressed and headed downstairs. Along the way she met up with Lurie who was hold a box in her hands and smiling.

"Well, I'm up." She said with a glare as she meet with Mahan and the others.

Loki noticed a purple haired elf kid standing next to them.

"Oh? Who might you be?"

Rita suddenly bowed at Loki's question.

"A-ah, sorry! I forgot to introduce myself! I-I'm Rita! I want to become a merchant so I came here with the rare item trader Kah'Ner. He's probably selling his items in the city's market center. Your friends weird saying interesting things, so I couldn't help but listen in."

Loki nodded. "Well, nice to meet you Rita. The name's Loki."

Loki looked back at Mahan, her eyes a bit dark than when talking to Rita.

"So? What's up?"

Quinlan63 Summer Breeze Sizniche

 

[Quinlan63]

Mahan was a bit interested by what Rita had to say since the trader she was talking about was the only trader in the whole game who could sell Heroic or legendary gear. Yeha the prices were high but it was worth it without having to do a huge quest or find rare crafting items to make them. But before he could say more Loki started to stare at him what he would call, the death eyes. He wasn't afraid of Loki one bit at this point but it never felt good o see someone you have put some trust in look at you like that.

"Well first calm down because fighting each other would be a waste of time. Second I thought it would be good to actually have stuff ready for Yuna so when she got up it could feel like a real birthday. You know decorations, having the cake ready with candles, and all of us hear to scream happy birthday as she comes down." Mahan hadn't had an actual birthday party in a while but he had spent some time going to others parties and nine times out of ten they always went that way and the person having their birthday was always happy for the effort put into making the party.

"Does anyone have a problem with getting up early to make Yuna feel special on her birthday?" Today Mahan was going to have to be more take charge than normal since this was important. Even more important than any battle they had ever been in.

RaynaFon Sizniche Summer Breeze

 

[Sizniche]

Max was intrigued by the message he received. He only had one more thing to ask. He sent one more privat message before Loki entered the room:

"How complex is your system AI?"

When Loki entered, he skipped over to her. "Hey, Loki! How are you doing?" He wore a smile that was obviously fake, but hey, at least it was trying. He was going to try and get along with Loki for Yuna's sake, since they seemed to get along better than anyone else.

Max listened to Mahan's plan. "I'm game, should I make some special gear for her or something?"

Quinlan63 RaynaFon Summer Breeze

 

[RaynaFon]

Loki tilted her head when Mahan said they were gonna shout happy birthday at Yuna.

"Huh? Why would we do that? Wouldn't that scare her instead? Plus, I didn't make food for a breakfast. Also, it isn't like Yuna doesn't know we're planning a birthday party for her, we kinda talked about it the whole way to the city."

Loki was about to ask if they were supposed to do that for a birthday when Shade walked..no skipped, over to her? Loki blinked to make sure she wasn't still asleep and was surprised to hear him asking how she was. Even if tue smile was fake, he never did that before.

"Does he want something from me? Yeah, t-that's got to he it. Just yesterday he was completely ignoring me after all. "

"A-ah, yeah. Thanks, what about you?"

Loki took a slight step back, surprised by the sudden change in personality of Nightshade. Watching all of this, Rita looked at the group confused.

"Humans really are weird."

Quinlan63 Sizniche

 

[Quinlan63]

"Sure if you want to," he responded to shade. "Gifts are never seen as a bad thing."

Message: "Hard to say really. It is supposed to make changes every once in a while to enhance the player's experience."

Now how Loki responded did raise a couple of flags for Mahan. Of course they never really talked about their personal lives so of course he wasn't sure but it did seem that she didn't know of the different ways to celebrate someone's birthday. Really all he could do was scratch his head because what had planned wasn't totally perfect by any means. Nor was it the only thing they could do for her, but it was a bit strange to him that she wasn't sure of what he was talking about.

"Uhh, no I'm pretty sure she won't be scared. It's more of a more festive way to say good morning to someone on their birthday. Food aside, don't worry about that for now since I was thinking we could just celebrate for the whole day and whatever you made can be eaten when time comes. Also the only surprise that I had planned was us all to be hear to tell her happy birthday so it really isn't that big of a deal......hmmm."

He was going to ask her what else she thought they might do for the day until something in the back of his mind started to bother him for some reason. The message Clancy had sent to them was actually pretty cryptic if you think about it for a minute.

"Hey Shade you said Clancy message that he was tied up for the moment right? Doesn't that seem a bit non descriptive when it is not hard to say that he was just out grinding. I don't know if I'm being paranoid or what but something doesn't seem right about that." He was really hoping that he was wrong and Clancy was fine because if he wasn't that would put a damper on the days celebration.

RaynaFon Summer Breeze Sizniche

 

[Sizniche]

"Think twice, ya racist," Max brushed his hair aside to show his elf ears to Rita. He then whispered to Loki, "I'm going to try and be nice today for Yuna's sake, since it's her birthday. Don't take this as an opportunity. Alright?"

He then stepped away from Loki. "Well, whatever we plan to do, let's make sure we give her a fantastic birthday, despite the circumstances." He then opened his menu to read Mahan's message. He typed up a reply:

"Interesting. This has given me a lot to think about."

Quinlan63 RaynaFon Summer Breeze

 

[RaynaFon]

Rita was surprised by Mr.Chainmail's elf ears and rushed over too him.

"Ahhh, w-where's your tail! You're an elf but you don't have one? O-oh are you a half elf? I've heard about that before."

Rita then looked at him in pity. Mr.Chainmail didn't look like any half-elf she had heard about, so that could only mean one thing. "D-did it get cut off? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get to bring up any bad memories."


Loki breathed a sigh of relief after Shade had told her why he was being nice to her. At least now she understood and returned back to her normal self, whispering back to him.

"Of course not, who do you that me for? I'm not that low."

The small kid then rushed over to Shade talking about tailed elves. Hmm, did all elves in this game have tails or something? That would be interesting. Was it a way to tell elf npcs from players?


"Er, alright I guess Mahan. Still, do birthday parties normally last all day? I don't really know much about the subject so I guess I'll have to refer to you since you seem to know this things are done, but, I'm not to sure about how Yuna will take to having it announced that it's her birthday in a public place."

Sizniche Quinlan63

 

[Quinlan63]

Mahan hadn't really thought how Yuna would react in such a public place. It was moments like this when they really need their own place.... Hmmm our own place.

"Ok your right on second I do have an idea so we can make this more private. Also I thought it would fun so we could take the day off. We have all been working so hard so this made perfect since for some down time." They had done so much grinding almost non-stop that it was starting to become way too repetitive.

"Instead just chill and relax with Yuna while I see about getting some private space for the party."

Looking over at Shade and Rita he was surprised to hear that she thought he was a half elf. Really he still wanted to know why she looked so different to the player's that were elfs. It just made no sense as she had a totally original look that was never intended to be in titan's age.

RaynaFon Sizniche

 

[Sizniche]

"Uhh, I wasn't aware elves ever had tails," Max said to Rita. He then felt at his rear just to make sure there wasn't a scar or a stub there. "Nope, no tail as far as I could tell. I haven't seen any other elves with tails, either."

"Well, I was going to buy a workshop after I got my money from Clancy," Max said to Mahan, in response to the remark about a private space, "and put living quarters for all of us, as well. If you're concerned about Clancy, we can go track him down; two birds, one stone, you know?" Max wasn't too worried about Clancy; he was an adult, after all, and being 'tied up' was just a figure of speech.

"Well, shouldn't we set up to surprise Yuna before she wakes up?"

Quinlan63 RaynaFon Summer Breeze

 

[RaynaFon]

Rita looked at Mr.Chainmail confused.

"What do you mean? All elves have tails. A tailless elf hasn't been seen for nearly a hundred years, so everyone thought they went extinct."

Rita looked at the chainmail wearing elf intensity.

"Wait, then did tailless elves disappear? Why did they disappear to begin with?"

Rita shaked her head to clear alway all the confusing thoughts that suddenly popped up, though the odd feeling in her stomach didn't go away.

"Anyways...the only elves around all come from the Great Forest, and we all have tails. An elf without a tail is more weird, so I don't know what you mean by all elves not having tails."

Sizniche Quinlan63

 

[Sizniche]

"Wh... Have you been living in isolation?" Max asked Rita. He couldn't believe that someone, an AI, no less, wasn't aware of the overwhelming number of players that were tailless elves. "Follow me, I'm about to do something mind blowing." He walked out of the door of the inn into the town square, dragging his massive sword behind him.

He tilted his head into the air and shouted "Free gold for all elves in the area!", and waited for a crowd to gather, shouting a few extra times for good measure. He waited for the elf to come out and see.

RaynaFon

 

[RaynaFon]

Rita was confused by the chainmail-halfelf's actions, but watched silently out of curiosity. When a group of people nearby heard his yell and came over, Rita took a look at their faces and was shocked to see elven ears but no tail.

"EHHHh!? W-what is this? This can't be. There's never been any recent talk about tailless elves in the city..nor was there anything said to the GrandMaster. W-why are there so many of you here. Kah'Ner even said there were none and he has traveled to here for five years. I don't.."

Rita and nodded alot. "I see...that has to be it. Gene hopping. Yeah. You all must be the descents of those Tailless elves that mingled with humans 100 years ago. The elf blood just never showed itself with their first offspring, and skip over to you all. That must explain it."

Rita was clearly grasping at straws to explain the sight infront of her, but it was the only way to explain the scene.

"Still, for no report to be sent, whats going on...Should I tell the GrandMaster?"

Rita whispered to herself.

"I don't want to go back after having finally got here, plus it could turn into an inter racial event. However, if anyone knows why tailless elves are back...and why they disappeared, it would be him."

Rita looked at the chainmail elf and the group near him.

Sizniche

 

[Sizniche]

"Grandmaster..." Max started to get a sneaking suspicion just from the name. "Get back inside, you need to tell me about this Grandmaster."

"What about our money!?" Someone in the crowd shouted angrily.

"There is no money," Max shouted back, "Go home!"

Naturally, outrage ensued, and Max received quite a lot of duel requests (read: a lot of people shouted "1v1 me, you lil' bitch"), but Max ignored them and went back inside, blocking the door from the crowd with a chair.

"Who is this Grandmaster? Is he like... and elf version of the Emperor or something? And why are Tailless elves such a shock?" Max was baffled. This was all probably meaningless, just a part of lore to make players feel special; Clancy told him off-the-cuff that companies often give their games a sort of "Chosen One" aspect, even in MMOs, to make the player feel like an important cog in the story. But why only elves? And, more importantly, why something so superficial? It just didn't make any sense in the way Clancy described it. Max's mind was whirring with concepts and theories as the angry mob of elves banged on the door, demanding money.

RaynaFon

 

[RaynaFon]

Rita blinked. "Huh? You really are a half-elf aren't you? If you were an actually elf you'd know who the GrandMaster is. Oh well, the GrandMaster is the spiritual leader of the elves. Our connection with the spirits of the Great Forest are through the GrandMaster. It's this way that we've gained tails over the generations. That why tailless elves are so weird. It like saying you don't have a connection with the forest or the GrandMaster, but since you're asking me who the GrandMaster is, it's clear you don't have one. Hey....."

Rita looked at the chainmail elf.

"Are you really half elf and not something else completely?"

Sizniche

 

[Sizniche]

He was tempted to be sarcastic and say "that's not what the character creation menu said" before realizing the implications of saying that. Instead, he opted to talk his way out of it through in-lore means, even if he didn't exactly know it. Then again, he might never know; that pesky AI might be changing things constantly as to make it impossible.

"No, as far as I know, I'm a full-blooded elf," he said. He paused for a moment to think, but he couldn't get quite the silence he desired as people continued to bang on the door, rattling dust off of shelves. "So, what, am I a tailless heathen or something? I mean, I've never been to that forest, does that have something to do with it?" Obviously, it didn't; he didn't have a tail since elves don't historically have tails in mythology, and it would give him an unfair advantage. No, it was purely an issue of mechanics. But he couldn't say that.

Max had an interesting thought. "Hey, describe this room." He wanted to see how developed the NPC AI is; how much the company (or the System AI, even,) thought to program.

RaynaFon

 

[Quinlan63]

"No that's fine I have the money now for what I was thinking of," Mahan replied. "But you can see about finding Clancy when you get the chance." He didn't mind Shades suggestion but it was time for them to live in more comfortably. Plus living in a shop was mainly for the person running the shop but Mahan didn't want to stop Shade from doing what he wants with what he buys.

"I'll have the decorations set where we are having the party so don't worry about that."

He was about to run off when Rita and Shade started to have an interesting conversation. It all seemed harmless and informative until Shade did something totally out of line. Now had he just took Rita out to see other players that were elfs it would be no problem. But lying about paying them was never a good move if you are not going to pay up. Doing so left them all trapped while he didn't even think of nothing but talking to Rita.

Walking over to a window he could see that there was a ton of players trying to get inside. In fact it was so many that leaving from a window from the second floor would not be an option. His plans would be for not if he couldn't get out there. With time being very important Mahan only had one option to use his most dangerous weapon.

"Hey Loki can you create a little chaos to get these guys out of here. I'm pretty sure that would not be good to have out there when Yuna wakes up."

RaynaFon Sizniche

 

[RaynaFon]

Rita was about to say something when the Chainmail elf asked something weird of her. Rita looked about the room and shrugged her shoulders.

"It's a standard entertainment room in a building. Long tables, chairs and people. Doesn't get more basic than that I suppose. Hmm, if you want something more detailed, I guess I can say it's unrefined at worst and cozily quaint at best. It's a little to lower to the ground for my own comfort and doesn't match up to the tree-buildings in the Great Forest, but it's still nice. The people within are alright for the most part, though the guy in the back there keeps staring at us; well, mostly at you and Mr. Paladin. He seems to be wondering how come you have such good gear and three girls talking to you. For the building as a whole, It's pretty big, with three floors. Some of the planks on the floor are different colors, meaning the owner has fixed it once or twice over the years. Considering he has the means to fix it, business must be well for him. The bed are a bit stiff, but after two days of walking, any bed well feel as soft as a cloud. Preferably I'd like the live wood of the Great Forest's trees, but the wooden planks here are still better then the stone road outside. The food is also strange smelling, but not bad. There anything else you'd like me to answer? Also, what is your name? If you're a full-blooded elf, then you should have a name that says what family your from right?"


Loki was started to get annoyed by the racket that Shade had caused with his money stunt. She wouldn't be able to relax with all the banging. She was about to do something about it herself when Mahan asked her to do it for him. Helpfully convenient. Moving the chair out of the way, she stepped outside towards the crowd.

"Ah, I'm sorry everyone. Our friend here likes to mess with people and tends to do pranks like this. He was just showing off in front of a little elf kid to see how many people he could make gather in one place. Sorry about that, we couldn't catch him that time."

Loki bowed and gave an uncharacteristic smile that would probably make the others shudder if they saw it. Abuse of female charms at it's finest. Most of the crowd left after saying some 'words' about her 'friend'. Some of the more rowdier members of the mob stayed to voice their complaints and challenged Loki to a duel. She accepted and handled them all. When they noticed she had already reached level 10 they too gave up and left saying words like hacker and beta player. Smiling, Loki waved as they left and went back inside.

"Things are all quiet now, we can go back to talking in peace."

Sizniche Quinlan63

 

[Sizniche]

Max frowned when Loki managed to shoo the players away; not that he was ungrateful, but he resented the kind of power she had. Still, it was the best asset the party had, so he had to keep his trap shut if he knew what was good for him. He was disappointed that he couldn't be the one to buy the house (since he was probably the only one who knew how to make a house with working plumbing), but Mahan was in charge and had a decent amount of money, so it was only fitting that Mahan own the house.

As he watched Loki dissipate the crowd, he listened to Rita's description of the room, as she listed descriptors he would have never thought to notice, deductions he never thought to make. Yet, there was one detail in particular that caught his attention.

"Wait, rewind," Max said, "How do you know what that man is thinking?" He refrained from saying his name until he finished his interrogation.

RaynaFon Quinlan63 Summer Breeze

 

[RaynaFon]

Rita smiled at the chainmail elf's question. "Because he's not very quiet about it in his expression. Eyes full of jealously and a face that saids: "They're too good for those guys." Mother taught me to look for things like that so I can stay away from 'bad people'. Well, that is the kind of person Mother is; always worried about her kids. Anyways, still whats your name? I'm Rita, everyone in my family has the ending -ta in their names, showing that we are proficient in communing with the Air Spirits. Some insight you your elven back ground can likely be traced with your name."

Rita, feeling tired of standing sat down and started to nibble on some of the food chainmail elf had on his plate as though it was completely normal. She watched chainmail elf as she ate, waiting for his answer.

Sizniche Quinlan63

 

[Quinlan63]

Mahan watched as Loki went out surprised on how she handled the situation. Well he was at first when she asked for them to leave but she started to look normal when she accepted their challenges. And of course quickly they started to give up seeing that it was not gonna be worth their trouble staying.

"Thanks now let me hurry up before we run out of time." He started to head when he turned back for the moment. "Hey actually Plinto and Lurie come with me, I might need some help with the decorating part." Mahan wasn't sure how long decorating would take so having some help would be good. Plus they tend to just be silent for the most part so he want to get know them better. Well really everyone but starting with them seemed the best since they joined up with them when they started on their exploration through the dungeon.

"Sure better than just sitting here doing nothing," said Plinto. "Just point me to whatever you need done and I'm on it boss."

RaynaFon Sizniche

 

[Quinlan63]

Heading out followed by Plinto and Lurie he thought about what would be the best way to learn about them more. It really wasn't rocket science, anyone would just say that all he had to do was just ask. The only thing was that what could he ask and what would be too much to ask at this point. He had never been one to ask much about others private lives when playing a game. But this time was not that much the case as they pretty much were living in a world rather than just playing a game. Plus it never hurt to know a little about the people who have been fighting with you.

They had reached the housing building in no time so he focused on handling the business at hand. Walking inside they had been greeted by a receptionist who ask on what kind of home we were coming to buy. Thinking about it he asked to see a list of the homes currently available in the city that were manors. The price for each would be the same but the location and design of each were different so it was worth taking a look. Taking a chance he decided to see what the others would like in a home.

"Hey guys it seems we have the pick of all the manors in town. Should we pick a small one with only 7 bedrooms rooms quarter near the city gates or the largest one with 12 bedrooms by the imperial castle?" He was sure to not mention that there was one near the main square with 10 bedrooms since that was the more ideal one out of the three. It was a little simple way to see what kind of person they are. "Both cost the same so don't worry about that I just want to hear what you would pick."

RaynaFon