Shiarra, Jericho, and Princess strolled into town.
Ken followed from a distance as he was excited to take his friend on an adventure, even if there was a third wheel called an older brother ruining the atmosphere he hoped for.
"Thank you, heroes for bringing water to our home!" The old village head cried in happiness.
The three received a completed quest notification. [You have brought water to the town. Residents will treat you as people worthy of respect. You have gained 300Exp. You have leveled! Claim the rewards from the village elder.]
"Yay! We reached level 5!" Moira cheered.
"Heroes, follow me." The man walked towards the center of town to a nearby storehouse. "As much as it pains me to say this, we don't have much we can give you."
{Called it!} Glaw voiced to Jericho. {This is why we don't deal much with humans; there is never an equivalent exchange.}
"In the building behind me is a storehouse of items that are either seen as defective products or we don't have anyone who knows how to use them. We are also willing to teach you about different skills. We have some skill books regarding leatherworking, tailoring, mining, and blacksmithing. Each of you can choose three things either from the storehouse or skills I mentioned." He opened the door. "I am sorry again; it is the best we can offer you."
Jericho placed his hand on the old man's shoulder. "It's alright. You have just made it through a hard time. It makes sense that you would have very little to offer." He and Shiarra walked inside.
"Um, Mister?" Princess started. "Can I have the skill books on tailoring and leatherworking? I want to be able to make wonderful outfits for my brother and I for when we perform and I don't know how to do either of those."
The old man smiled and passed over the two books. "Now then, do you want another book? Or do you want to go look inside for something?"
"I'll go inside now." She smiled as she joined her brother and the warrior.
Shiarra looked around the warehouse. After a bit of searching she picked up a few scrolls and left the building.
The warehouse was mostly empty and filled with dust. A dark blue and black stained acoustic guitar rested in the corner. Next to it was a similar wooden object that had a longer bridge and more tuning machines but lacked a neck.
Jericho immediately picked them up and let out a sigh that the strings were broken. He was happy to have his first in-game guitar and zither, even if they lacked strings He opened the compartments on the ends to find three plectra and a handful of finger picks. "Looks like I have a lot of piano wire to make for these two instruments." He muttered to himself. "Now where can I find…"
Princess tripped over a container full of metal ingots. "OW!" She cried out.
Jericho came running over. "Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah, I just didn't expect to suddenly trip." She replied pointing to the box.
"No way," Jericho muttered as he stared at the container. "Did the game designers know piano wire was made of this stuff?"
"Eh? Did you find something interesting brother?" Princess's interest was piqued considering the in game pain faded almost instantly.
"Steel, with an extremely high carbon count;" He replied. "It is the material used in a lot of things back in the start of the millennium including the piano wire. I have a large collection of it at home in case any of my strings break. Why is this metal considered a defective product?"
"I don't know, but do you have a use for it?"
Jericho smiled and pulled the two unstrung instruments from his inventory. "While one guitar is not enough for most of my guitar songs, to find these two beauties here is already a great reward. They just need to be re-stringed." Jericho picked up the box of ingots and put it in his inventory. "Have you found something you want?"
"I asked for the books on making clothing from both cloth and leather. We performers need more outfits than just one!"
Jericho let out a happy laugh; "such a thoughtful little sister."
"Yep, then I can make me beautiful cloths and can make you some fun costumes to play your instruments it." She winked and stuck out her tongue playfully.
Jericho continued laughing as he ignored the slight chill of foreboding he felt. "What else are you going to pick then?"
"I don't know, help me find something!"
The two resumed their search until they found a slightly damaged simple dress that was ankle length in the back and just below knee length in the front. "It's so pretty!" Princess squealed in delight as she took the dress that mysteriously shrunk to her size by the power of the game mechanics.
Jericho agreed it would look good on his adorable 12 year old sister. He was relieved that it wasn't a leotard, since it would lower the chance he would have to fight off any loli-cons even if the game had safety measures in place.
The two exited the warehouse and were greeted by the village head once again. "I hope you were able to find something to your liking." He replied.
"We were. If it is alright, may I borrow your village forge for a bit? There is something I wish to make." Jericho asked plainly.
"Of course! If he knows what you are trying to make, Theodore the blacksmith can help you out."
"Thank you." Jericho replied, looking forward to the meticulous work to fix up these instruments.
Shiarra placed her hand on the bard's shoulder with a sigh. "I'm going to head off for a while you two. I'll hang out with you again sometime."
Princess looked over to the warrior. "Where are you going? Do you want us to come with you?"
The woman laughed as she adjusted her wrist guards. "I am going to go bash some monster skulls in for the next bit; I need to train up my weapon skills. It isn't something you want to join me on."
"Oh," Princess replied sadly.
"Don't worry yourself. I will let you know if I find a good adventure for us in the future." She smiled.
"Alright! As long as we can adventure together again! It was a lot of fun playing with you!"
"Indeed. Princess, Jericho, keep enjoying this game. See you next time we have an adventure together." She sent a message to Princess as she walked off. [Keep in touch.]
Princess smiled. [Always! Thanks for helping to keep my brother safe!]
Off in the distance Shiarra could no longer hold in her laughter. "I was keeping both of you safe. I liked spending time with you two oddballs even if I originally approached you because my bosses asked me too. I look forward to next time." She logged off.
Seeing their friend leave in the distance, Princess returned to the village head. "Can you tell me where the tailor is? I want to fix a dress and practice my newly learned skills!"
***
Jericho turned his focus to the forge as he pulled out the high-carbon steel. He explained to the blacksmith the process of making the wire from already tempered steel the way his grandfather had taught him.
The two worked on turning the ingots into the desired shape.
Jericho received a notification. [You have obtained the Blacksmithing skill line Tier 1. You have learned the skill re-molding 3/10 beginner. You lack the necessary skills to forge on your own. You have one known recipe. (Musical instrument strings)]
After finishing the wire, Jericho carefully tied them to the instruments and cut them to the proper lengths. He tuned the instruments to confirm that the wires were good. His blue guitar and alpine zither were now fully functional. [I'm done, how about you?] Jericho asked his sister.
[I need 30 more minutes.] She replied.
[I'll go to cook dinner. Log off when you are done so we can eat.] He replied as he logged off.
Moira carefully placed the newly obtained dress in the various vats of dye present in the tailor's shop. Her formally plain dance dress was now layered with pink, orange, and yellow looking like a bright sunset. She logged out to join her brother for food.
During dinner they talked.
"Moira, do you want to rock out later?" Jericho asked with a slight grin.
"You finished repairing the instruments already?" She inquired with bright eyes.
"Yep and my fingers are itching to play."
"I would love to rock out! I just finished my dress. You should sing and play Powerslide!"
The elder brother laughed. "Sounds like a plan. So what are we going to do after this, any ideas?"
"Yep, Kenneth is going to take us over to a new starting town to adventure in the forest!"
"That sounds exciting. Does he know the rules?"
Moira nodded. "I told him. He said he would do his best to not hunt things down. So we can find other ways to solve the problems."
"Okay. A forest sounds like a good idea. A lot of instruments have stories about being used by creatures in the woods. Maybe I will be able to get some more there."
The two logged back in and met at the well in the unnamed town they had saved.
The bard admired his sister's handiwork on her new dress.
"I'm ready when you are!" She shouted excitedly.
Quickly a crowd formed from the fans that had come to save them previously.
"Wow! You guys came all the way out here just to watch us perform! You guys are great!" Princess shouted to the crowd.
The fans felt loved.
Jericho split himself and pulled out his two new instruments. The twang of the zither blended with the strumming of the guitar.
Princess danced fiercely to the classic rock song her brother was enthusiastically playing and singing. She noted that her brother's prim outfit from the start of the game didn't match the vibe of what he was playing at all and vowed to solve it later.
The performance that awed the audience and mildly terrified the local residents ended.
"Today we are going to go travel to someplace new! We hope to see you all again!" Princess shouted out the hyped crowd.
Princess messaged her friend. [Ken, we are done here and since it is the weekend, there isn't school tomorrow. We can adventure a lot!]
Her friend smiled. [Let's go then! To the forests of Pren!]
© J Eranoth