It seemed like a good idea at the time. It always seemed as though in games like this everyone always wanted a cute pet. There were plenty of NPC pet shops of course, but with this game's taming skill it was theoretically possible to make anything into a pet.
He had acquired the taming skill, he liked animals, and everything just seemed to be falling into place. But, it wasn't that easy of course. There was a stumbling block in the fact that to increase skill levels, you had to use the skill, and the really cool animals generally had high levels.
The bog full of fireflies had seemed like a gift from the God of Luck when he'd stumbled across it. He leveled up his taming skill a lot, taming all those little glowing beetles. And then he spent all his accumulated coin with the travelling merchant, who had conveniently wandered by about the time that he'd realized that he had no way to carry so many creatures at once.
Storage items that could hold living creatures in compressed spaces were ridiculously expensive, but he comforted himself with the thought that after he sold the fireflies he could store future tamed animals in the delicate looking cage that was much bigger on the inside than the outside. The merchant assured him that it was big enough to hold even an elephant.
He kind of wanted to get something as big as an elephant to put into it someday, just to see how cute and small it would look while contained within the cage. In the meantime he carried the cage that swirled with tamed fireflies ready to become someone's pets back to Fogton, the human capital where the largest number of players could usually be found.
He hadn't intended to sell them one by one himself. He'd planned to sell them to a pet store, which might be less profitable, but would be quick. He couldn't find a shop, or even a merchant in the market place who would take them.
The NPC merchants all said something along the lines of, "We only buy useful or cuddly pets. The best pets have both qualities."
Eventually he gave up and set up in the market square as a vendor. The fireflies were pretty, and he was sure that at least some people would be interested. He removed several of the little glowing beetles and let them circle him, and then he waited.
He was beginning to fear that he might not even be able to give them away for free when he saw a cute girl trailing three guys approaching in a round about fashion. The girl was stopping at every booth and seemed to be looking for something. She kept pointing at things and demanding the attention of one guy or another of her entourage.
When she reached him, she gave him a puzzled look and asked demandingly, "What are you selling then?"
He pointed to the fireflies circling him. "Pets," he said discouragingly.
"How much?" she asked with interest.
He kind of hated women who boosted their egos by "collecting" men, so even though he'd just been thinking of giving them away for free, he quoted her an outrageous price.
She frowned at him doubtfully and turned to her companions. "Is that reasonable? It sounds ridiculous."
He surreptitiously used his menu lens to examine her and her party while the little red haired guy with the race he didn't recognize rolled his eyes and asked, "Who knows?"
She turned demandingly to the bright blue haired assassin, who was dressed in what almost looked like modern clothing, and declared, "Sky should know! What do you think Sky?"
He winced as he realized from the man's accumulated level that he must have been playing at least since the day the game went public, if not since the beta. The assassin would know that the price he'd quoted her was ridiculous. He couldn't believe his luck when the man shrugged and told the girl, "No idea, I've never cared about getting a pet. People do say they are pretty expensive though?"
"Huh, well, okay I guess. But what does a pet do for you?" she turned back to him and asked.
He glanced at the assassin, and then shrugged and told the annoying newbie girl honestly, "Most pets just look cool, useful pets are quite expensive! But every pet can be named whatever you want, and can teleport to it's master at will. They can understand simple commands like sit, stay, and follow."
If she really bought a firefly at that price, he could afford to give the rest away and go back to his usual adventures instead of standing around the marketplace.
"Hmm, ok!" She turned to the blue haired man and demanded, "let's buy this then! It seems like a pretty cute idea, and most girls would like a cute pet that glows I think. This will work!"
The assassin glanced at him, and then said simply, "No."
A moment later, the man walked away. He actually kind of wanted to tell the guy, 'Nice one!' even though he really would like to sell her a firefly at that price. He suspected that there was still a chance that the girl was going to get her way in the end when she ran after him and hung from his arm and whined, "Sky!"
Girls like that were so annoying! He wondered why anyone ever put up with them. What was so good about a cute girl that you'd follow her around like that with a bunch of other guys anyway. He really didn't get it.
He was perplexed when she returned a while later with a different, but even higher leveled assassin. The same two newbie guys trailed along after them too. The new guy obviously knew that he'd inflated the price as well.
"What skills does it have?" the new, and more traditionally black clad assassin asked doubtfully.
"Um, at level one they only have one skill, glow," he replied nervously.
"Hmm," the assassin looked thoughtful, like he was actually considering it. He ignored the girl who kept poking him. After a long minute he shook his head and said, "Even for a pet with a useful skill like light, who can be used as a distraction, or sent into small spaces like a key hole that you'd ordinarily have difficulty with, that's too much. We won't pay more than half of that."
He had to stop himself from appearing too eager. He hedged with exaggerations about the difficulty of capturing and taming such small mobile animals, and then accepted.
After they left he counted the coin again a little disbelievingly. And the next time someone stopped to inquire about the fireflies, he gave them a lower price than he had to the girl and her weird harem. However, he explained what a useful pet a light bearing firefly could be, and they bought one.
Eventually he sold them all, and made more than twice the coin that the special cage had cost. Maybe the fireflies really had been a gift from the God of Luck after all.