As soon as work was over, I practically ran home. I made a detour to avoid where Eurus worked on purpose too. I definitely didn't want to seem like I was stalking his workplace.
Once I stepped in the door, I threw a pot on the stove and filled it with water. I wanted to make sure I had some food before I started to play. I also took a quick shower.
When I was done eating, I put my headset on and logged into the game.
It didn't come as a surprise that when I logged in, Liam and Quinn were already playing. In fact, as soon as I appeared by the fountain in town, I could see Liam tossing some wood and other garbage onto an already burning fire.
"Oh, hey, Flo," Liam said when he noticed me.
"What's with the fire?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Well, since we're in charge of the island, we figured we shouldn't keep it looking like a dump! What would people think of us if we kept the town in this state?" Liam said, walking into a nearby house.
I liked his enthusiasm.
I opened the guild info. There were so many requests for guild wars. These people absolutely wanted to get their hands on this island. They really didn't even care that we were a newbie guild. I sent rejection messages to each and every single one of them.
After that was done, I decided to see what Quinn and Ven were up too.
It didn't take me long to find Quinn. He was coming from one of the exits of town with Mangetsu at his side. In his arms he held some fruit that looked like apples and pears but they were the wrong color. The apples were blue and the pears were purple.
"Hello," he said with a small nod.
"What were you up to?" I asked.
"I-I figured Ven and Mangetsu probably need some food so I went and found these from a few trees around the outside of town. I saw them yesterday when we were coming back…" He replied.
"What a good kid," I thought, resisting the urge to pat him on the head. Not that I could even reach his head since he was much taller than me.
"I was going to try and defeat a couple of rabid wolves to get some meat drops, but any I came across ran as soon as they saw us," He sighed.
"Maybe we can set up some traps for that?" I said, rubbing my chin.
"That would be a good idea. I think I saw a few places where we could put them too…"
"Anyway, where is Ven? At the temporary headquarters?" I asked.
"No, he was in the village chief's house reading some books to see if he could find some clues for the curse that was supposedly lifted. It's the house with the faded red roof," Quinn replied. "Can you give this to Ven?" He handed me the purple looking pear and blue apple.
"Yeah, sure."
With that Quinn walked off in the direction of our headquarters.
I remembered seeing the house Quinn was talking about yesterday when we were breaking into houses to find signs of life. Not only did it have a unique color roof compared to the rest of the town, it was also the tallest one too.
When I approached the building, I saw Ven sitting on a bench outside with a book in his hand. He seemed to notice me approaching and hopped up excitedly. I immediately noticed that he was using the bow from yesterday to put his hair into a ponytail. He was also sporting a pair of glasses.
"Huh, it suits him pretty well," I thought as he ran up to me.
"Well met, Lucky! I'm glad you're finally here. N-not that I've been waiting or anything! Or that I wanted to see you!" Ven said in a flustered voice and waving his hands in front of him.
That told me two things; one: he was absolutely waiting for me to show up and two: he did want to see me. He was probably beside himself when Liam and Quinn logged in too.
It was crazy how much of a personality he had despite being an NPC someone programmed. Eurus did say that Exordium had advanced AI that was constantly evolving. It actually made me rather excited to meet other NPCs.
"These are for you, Ven," I said, handing him the fruit. "Q- I mean… Ephemera picked them for you and Mangetsu."
"Oh, he's such a nice elf. I wish more of them would endeavor to be like him. Most elves are usually grumpy or don't want to spare you the time of day," he grumbled as if bringing back unpleasant memories.
I laughed which caused him to look over at me and smile.
"Anyway, I was just reading some of the logs the village chief wrote. There's no mention of any kind about any sort of curse… This one is from a little bit before I left the town. So maybe some of the later ones have a clue or two," Ven said, holding up the book. "Unfortunately he was never the one to keep things in order…"
"Hmm, it would make sense if it happened after you left. I think you of all people would remember something like a curse being cast on the island." I looked over at the building. "You did say the village chief took you in when you were little, right? Does that mean that you lived here?"
"Oh, you remember that? Yes, I was an orphan with nowhere to go after my seafaring parents left me to die on this island. I found my way to the town with much difficulty on the verge of death. The village chief took me in with no hesitation. He was a very kind man. That's why I would absolutely like to find out what happened here. What could they have done to make someone curse them?" he proclaimed.
"I know it's just his programmed back story, but how could someone just abandon their kid on some random island?" I thought.
I couldn't help but pat Ven's shoulder at this thought- well I tried. I misjudged my height. Instead I ended up patting his chest. It seemed to catch him off guard. He had a look of, well I can't describe what kind of look it was. Maybe it was anger?
"Oh, sorry! I wasn't trying to touch your chest. I was trying to pat your shoulder… I keep forgetting I'm short now…" I tried to apologize.
"It's quite alright, Lucky. It just startled me. You could to-"
"HEY!" Someone shouted.
The unfamiliar voice caused us to snap our heads in the direction of it.
"Who was that? Is it a survivor?" I asked Ven.
He shook his head. "I haven't the slightest clue."
"Where the hell are you, Helianthus Guild!?" the voice shouted again.
At this point I realized this was probably another guild member or leader pissed off that I rejected their guild wars invite.
"Shit," I mumbled under my breath.
I honestly didn't think that anyone would be angry about a rejection. I didn't even add anything to the rejection messages other than the default stuff. Could they attack us in a safe zone? Did safe zones only keep monsters out? More importantly, could they kill Ven?
I bit my thumb as I thought about it.
Suddenly a purple screen appeared before me.
"Hey! Helianthus! Get out here. We just wanna talk to you!" the person yelled.
[QUEST: CALLED OUT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT]
[QUEST GIVER: ???]
[AN ANGRY GUILD IS HERE TO PK YOUR GUILD. PROTECT VEN BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. TAKE THE GUILD OUT OR TRY TO RESOLVE THE SITUATION PEACEFULLY. THE CHOICE IS UP TO YOU.]
[QUEST FAILURE: VEN IS KILLED.]
[QUEST REWARD: BOTANY SKILL BOOK]
"What a fucking liar!" I thought angrily. This situation couldn't be solved peacefully. They were definitely here to just PK us until we gave up the island.
I didn't need to be told twice to protect Ven. I didn't even need a quest to do that. It was a given that any of us would protect Ven.
That said, the [BOTANY SKILL BOOK] was something I absolutely wanted.
Suddenly I became aware of messages popping up on the guild's message board and saw messages from both Liam and Quinn.
[EPHEMERA: I just saw some people storm into town by the west gate.]
[IANTHINE: i'm gonna hide]
[EPHEMERA: They're yelling for us to come out.]
[IANTHINE: okay so i don't mean to alarm anyone but i just got a quest that said they want to pk us and kill ven. hey there's a nifty reward for completing this. clothcraft skill book.]
[EPHEMERA: I just got it too. My reward is a culinary skill book.]
[IANTHINE: dammit i hope Flo is reading these messages.]
[LUCKY: I'm with Ven. Can they even kill us in town?]
[EPHEMERA: Normally if a player tries to PK in a safe zone there are town guards that will intervene to keep the peace. Depending on the situation, the PKer will be thrown in town jail. But we don't have any of those so they have nothing to fear.]
[LUCKY: Fuck]
I snatched Ven's book from him and tossed it by the doorway of the village chief's house. I made sure to leave the door wide open. I grabbed Ven's glasses too, saying "I'm sorry" as I did. I threw them in the opposite direction from where I planned to get Ven out of the town.
"What's going on?" Ven whispered as I pulled him towards an alleyway.
"Someone's trying to kill the four of us for claiming this island," I replied.
I could see his face go pale.
We crouched down in the alleyway. I opened up the guild screen.
[EPHEMERA: Did you guys use your tickets yet? If not, I think now would probably be a good time.]
"Time to gamble for our lives, I guess," I whispered.
"Sorry, what?" Ven asked, with a perplexed look on his face.