Hold on, I forced my thoughts to slow down. ERROR_null?? What the hell was that supposed to be? I looked at the creature's name again and then it occurred to me that since this was an undiscovered monster, the game's system was probably not allowed to reveal it to players.
But I did discover it, Lilly and I. And I would also probably have unlocked some kind of achievement for finding and assisting her with capturing it if we'd been successful, maybe even gotten coins as a reward.
WAIT.
Achievements.
I opened my game menu and went to my player profile. Tapping around and opening previously unchecked sections revealed an Achievements list and as I'd anticipated, there were a few locked achievements in it. Too few actually… They weren't even up to ten… My eyes watered at this. They all gave coins as rewards but about half of them were too advanced for me to complete right now.
The first one was a beginner's achievement.
[Say Hi to 50 Woodpine town locals (5/50)]
[Reward: 100 gold, 30 XP]
So what I was getting was, I could have gotten 100 gold since the very beginning and got myself all twisted up into a pretzel for nothing?
My eyes watered even harder. Well, this was something I could do to pass the time while waiting to see Lilly once she was fully healed (without her father knowing, of course). And so, I set off to say hey to random strangers, a task that took me about half an hour. Once I was done, I got a notification.
[Achievement unlocked! You have received 100 gold.]
Remembering I had unlocked the Messaging feature, I was curious to see who I had on there now from the last time it was empty, I opened the list. Unsurprisingly, Lillian Dirge was on it.
[Lillian Dirge] [Send mail]
[Helia Verosea] [Send a message]
Helia Verosea! The girl who helped me when I first entered Woodpine. I recalled her giving me her contact information before we parted ways. The feeling she was meant to be some kind of player support NPC went through my mind and I found myself sending her a message.
[Hi, Helia. Sorry to bother you, I just wanted to ask for some other ways to earn gold coins other than the quests you suggested.
~Hero]
I nearly hit send before remembering she didn't know me as Hero, then changed my sign off to 'The guy you showed around town from two days ago' and sent it. Her response came about a minute later.
[Hi, The guy you showed around town from two days ago! There are so many other ways to earn gold in Woodpine! The most popular ways are completing quests, events, aiding friends and acquaintances out when they need your help, and adventurer achievements. I hope this helped but if not, Helia's always a message away!
P.S. I know your name's not actually The guy you showed around town from two days ago. I was just trying to be funny hahahahahahaha]
I blinked at her joke, not really feeling it.
[Hero: Thanks. My name is Hero, though. About quests, are there any reasons why I wouldn't be able to cancel them?]
[Helia: No, you're always free to cancel a quest for any reason.]
[Hero: Oh. Okay, that sounds wonderful thanks.]
So the quest problem was a bug. There was no way for me to fix that it was best to just forget about it altogether. There were no ongoing events from what I could see and I didn't really have any friends who could need my help in exchange for gold, at least not anytime soon if I counted Lilly.
All I could do to keep going was complete achievements. From what I could see, there were many simple ones that were obviously intended to get me on my feet in terms of money, so I spent the remainder of my morning completing them. Once it was afternoon, I'd gathered nearly 2000 gold. It was that easy.
With the money, I bought food to refill my energy bar. Feeling too confident, I strolled to one of the blacksmith shops around and inquired about the price of a sword. No one told me to turn my ass right around to return a small but sharp-bladed sword I'd picked to the shelf once I'd heard its price.
20,000 gold? Yeah, no. I got a pocket knife for 500 and slipped that into my pocket.
Somehow, my walk around the town led me to the clinic I'd left Lilly in. I entered in a way I hoped was inconspicuous, just in case Mr Dirge was still around and went up to the healer who sat at the front table.
"Hi, I'm here to ask about Lillian Dirge. Is she still admitted?"
The woman who'd been smiling professionally at me frowned suddenly, "Oh, that poor girl? She's been discharged." She shook her head. I didn't like the mood of this conversation.
"What do you mean poor? Was everything alright with her?"
She smiled tightly at me, "Sorry, but we're not allowed to disclose patient information."
I sighed, "Of course."
I wasn't giving up on talking to her again though. I left and went to sort out a place to stay for the next day or two. There were small inns everywhere. Hospitality as a business thrived because of the steady stream of adventurers who passed through Woodpine on their journey, and so the rates were low.
The room I snagged was one of the lower-quality ones, but it was comfortable and clean. After I was done making sure everything was alright, I left and went downstairs to get dinner in the dining room. Time went by fast and evening had fallen.
Bread and beef stew was being served, along with a mug of beer. I turned down the beer and went for a lighter drink, and proceeded to eat my food slowly while watching everyone around me chat noisily and play games over food. It was as if I was in a haze.
And almost like I'd dreamt it, as my eyes swept across the room, they landed on a girl in a cloak, blonde hair peeking out from her shoulders and ruby eyes glinting in the candlelit room.
Lilly! Immediately, her name came to my lips as I stood abruptly to call out to her, but I wasn't careful and ended up choking on spit and my food. I coughed, eyes watering and throat torn between wanting to expel the food pieces lodged in it and still choking out Lilly's name.
But as if she'd merely meant to glance over me, as if she'd been searching for someone else, she didn't acknowledge me and turned to leave the inn.