The Murphys were having a sleepless night. They still felt they were dreaming while using the suite in that posh hotel. They had hoped such day would come. But most of the hope was that their kids would get to enjoy this sort of life. They were already old, why all this nonsense for them? Luxuries were meant to be used by growing children.
Yes, Murphys still behaved as if all their kids were not earning, socially responsible adults but still young ones. The talk they had that night... perhaps they might not talked of that if Atharva was still present in the room. In the end, they could just sigh and hope their children had better future.
Sama was enroute to city L. She was so hyper to meet all of the family after so many days that she could not sleep a wink. The twins - they were so tired that they started snoring. Which apparently disturbed the couple next door in the bed and breakfast place and the husband knocked their door to tone down a bit. But, how can you control snoring ? Would some one even think in their sleep that they started snoring but they should not be loud? So, in the end, the couple had disturbed night, so did the twins.
Atharva was back to using VR headgear. He started missing the pod immediately. Tsk! Soo addicted to rich man's toy. Easy to play rich, hard to come back and be frugal. Atharva gave himself a prep talk. This time he did not skip VR lobby like he usually did while wearing VR headgear. But he did not have enough time to sit and read elaborately, so he just skimmed headlines. No patchwork notes either. Okay, good to go.
The first stop, cleaning. He didn't go to training room yesterday evening. He had been too tired and they were cutting too close to closing time by the time they reached village. So, he donned the cleaning garb and ran to training room and started apologising to Keini even before he saw her.
Keini did not have heart to scold him when Artha stood there looking like a fool. And did this blessed immortal really travel through the village wearing that cleaner uniform? Didn't he feel bad? All of the villagers, who used these rooms or were responsible for it took turns to clean but they felt disgusted or just plain yucky whenever they had to wear that uniform. Even when they just had to use spells, they had to wear uniforms. Go buerocracy.
Guess wearing that hideous looking uniform and moving all around the village is enough of the punishment. She just shooed him off, to start cleaning.
Artha started working in a jiffy. He did not wait to see what the items he was sorting at. No time. But not seeing the items meant the Nitpicker title would not become proficient today. Ah, win some, lose some. He sorted items fastly, never forgetting to store reusable items.
Then run towards inn to start cleaning there. Same procedure. Just stow whatever was usable and segregate other wastes into proper bins.
He could finally remove his cleaner uniform. Didn't he feel yucky? Well, he did. Didn't he feel bad running around in that uniform? No! No one would know it was Artha. Vanity is satisfied. No need to worry about bullying, even within the game. All he had to tone down the smell perception down while sorting these so called garbage items. It was a village level garbage, which had influx of thousands of blessed immortals. So not much garbage to sort. He really didn't know if he would be still able to do the same beyond village level. So he had to find solutions to his problems while he was still in the village.
Then a stint of work in the inn kitchen. The cook had turned back into grumpy self, Artha didn't have courage to request for actual cooking. What had changed from yesterday? Maybe it's the timing. So he decided to check this theory too. Later on. But helping in kitchen increased some profiencies at least. He had to solace himself like that. Self solacing is a ...Well, not many normal people would understand what happens when a person has to solace himself or its effects.
The stall near the village square was still standing. As expected, the banner showing the price paid by guilds for gift crates changed. Oh, they had new addition. They were limiting the number of different sizes crates they would buy. After each purchase, they would manually altered the number of crates needed. Where is the privacy? Where is keeping the details of the sale hidden? Wouldn't everyone know what type of gift crate one bought this way? But, these players didn't mind. Why? Few extra credits to compensate this lack of privacy kept them happy.
Had to let Sela and Edgeless Sword know. They can call in reinforcement. He did just that. Edgeless Sword didn't say thanks. He also didn't add that he was the one who hung that banner. Their team members were still working as miscellaneous workers to guilds before braving the dungeons. In a way, he was a good buddy. He never said your advice is useless.
After informing, Artha stood for a while and pondered. These changes made his mental timetable useless. He would have some free time now. As it seems the dungeon raiding will be a bit late. Sela and others had to come here, sell the crates and then walk towards the dungeon. Dang! If he knew this, he would have sorted things in training rooms.and inn slowly. What items did he miss because of low profiency and fast sorting?
Can't keep on crying on split milk. He might just practice his spells in a map near dungeon. After some small chats with the NPCs. He had some lingering doubts that these NPCs did many things after the players went to sleep. So, talking to them , updating with them is a must.
Zoya was annoyed. Why? She assumed the blessed immortals would buy lots of potions, thus issuing a quest to Artha. Now. Situation had changed. Not many visited her, comparatively speaking. She didn't sell any of costly potions too. She now had excess of that stock.
Artha stacked the potions like a pro and said, "I don't believe it."
"You better do."
"Logic is on my side. And I know more about blessed immortals than you do. Believe me, you don't have excess of stock. You may have to issue me a quest again later on."
"Dream on!" Zoya didn't know why this peaky brat was h*ll bent on recieving quests and tasks. Quests were better.
It didn't matter much to her and she was in the hurry previously, thus allowed his whimsy. Would she pander to his whims again? Have a good guess.
Artha had a bad premonition. If he didn't explain, his regular quest giver would likely stop issuing even tasks. And he was depending on her to finally become an apprentice potioneer.
He tried to explain. "Look, we blessed immortals just received another blessing. So we don't need much of these strong potions. Guess what happens after we use these and find their effects? Would we be willing to go back to weak and basic potions? Especially when we know that better option is there.
I can bet your client will be wanting more of the strong potions too. So... better stock up."
Zoya felt what he said was right. If these blessed immortals used strong potions and saw their effects, they would come back for more.
"You said you were all blessed again. How did it happen? What happened? Will it happen again?"
"We are clueless about those things. Blessings come in many ways, so no one knows what type of blessing one gets, till he gets it. We are just happy that we are blessed."
Who said Artha can't avoid such a huge pit fall? Not even employed properly, he was already learning ways of escaping. He will have a great future in corporate world.
Zoya pacified. Job done well. Now, just run away before she finds something else to get angry about. Run towards the dungeon.