"May I help you sir?" The elf behind the counter asked.
"Yes, I would like a Portal Stone to Thamethalas." John asked unsure.
"Ah yes a newcomer, very well one moment..." The elf said before reaching behind him and getting a stone that had a strange glyph on it that John did not recognize.
"I just need your name please sir." The elf said before grabbing a pen and holding it over a form.
"Vincarna." John replied.
"An unusual name for a human but still a welcome one, let's see Vincarna..." The elf continued to mumble as he jotted things down before saying.
"Done here is your portal stone, if you lose it, please come and get a replacement from here, though you will have to pay for it in the future."
"Thank you very much." John replied as he picked up the stone and received a notification.
[Item Received: Portal Stone: Thamethalas]
[Portal Stone: Thamethalas: A portal stone that will return you to the Thamethalas Teleportation Hall]
[Cooldown: 1 hour]
"Useful" John said before walking outside and waiting for Alea.
As he waited outside the hall he looked around and watched the many different players leaving the hall after teleporting in, he saw numerous different races from all five different continents as this was the main city to gather in for the central continent."
After waiting for about ten minutes he finally saw Alea or Silver Oracle as she was known in the game approaching him with a smile.
She immediately got the attention of the crowd.
She was dressed in a silver white cleric's robe that had gold highlights and showed off her ample cleavage while it matched her silver white hair.
She also carried a large staff that had a glowing jewel on the end.
With her beauty and silver white hair players instantly recognized her as Silver Oracle and the princess of the elf race causing people to greet her.
John noticed that while most of the elves looked at her with respect and admiration, there were several elves as well as most of the other races who looked at her with envy or even lust in their eyes.
"Sorry to keep you." Silver Oracle said as she stopped in front of John and appraised him.
"Hmm we definitely need to sort you out some better gear now you're out of the starter village, though that cloak you're wearing is interesting, I have never seen it before."
As she finished speaking the two head people started to talk in loud voices.
"Hey, who is that guy that Silver Oracle is meeting?"
"Yeah, she came here to meet him personally."
"Not even the great Natures Guardian has had that privilege."
"His name is Vincarna and he is a level five human, but I can't read any of his stats."
"What's wrong with you let me try, hey what's up with this?"
"See, they just have question marks next to them like if you try to inspect something ten or more levels above you."
"That can't be right, Silver Oracle just said he just left the starter village, and his stat panel clearly shows he is only level five."
As the crowd began to gossip Silver Oracle also looked at John before saying.
"Hey there right, why can't I see any of your stats?"
John smiled and said in a low voice.
"Not here."
After which he asked.
"So where to first?"
Silver Oracle gave him a suspicious look before smiling and saying.
"The auction house, we need to get you better gear and you should have got the money that was owed to you by the Dawnscape guild and has been accumulating for a week now, right?"
"Yeah, I just got it as I transferred over, I can't believe how much I got."
Silver Oracle leaned in closer before whispering.
"Sarah told you it would be a lot of money; this is two percent of a guild's earnings and you will get it on a daily basis from now on as well."
John nodded in agreement as he followed alongside Silver Oracle who led the way.
"So, any luck on your quest?" John decided to ask as they walked.
"No, which is why I will be counting on you, my brave hero." Silver Oracle replied with a giggle.
"I don't know how brave I have to be to talk to some city animals." John said with a laugh.
"Oh, don't go thinking it's just rats and cats, oh no you're in for a surprise."
"Why do I get the feeling that whenever I help you in the future it will be risky in some way or another?" John asked with a sigh.
Silver Oracle did not reply except to giggle.
"Right, we are here." She said a moment later as they rounded a corner and before John appeared a large rock face that had a carved entrance to a building.
The entrance had grand double doors in the center with windows spreading left and right of the doors along the rest of the carved-out wall.
In between the windows large pillars were carved out.
Many people were entering and leaving the auction house as Silver Oracle led John inside.
Inside was a huge circular room with many tables and chairs and also many large comfy sofas.
Around the edges of the room were several counters where people waited to get served.
John noticed that one half of the counters said collections while the other was deposits with a final counter in the middle for assistance.
Silver Oracle took John's hand and led him over to a large sofa away from most people where she sat down and pulled him down next to her.
Her interaction with John caused many people to show surprised expressions as it was well known that Silver Oracle kept most people at arm's length except a very small number.
"So, the auction system can be accessed from anywhere inside this building, just say the words 'Auction Terminal' and it will appear."
"Auction Terminal" John said, and a large holographic interface screen appeared before him.
The interface was rather streamlined in that it had a search section down the left side where you could input the name of the item you were looking for as well as search parameters if you did not know the name but had an idea of what you wanted.
"So, you can either say the name or search parameters or key them in manually so others cannot over here you."
"Don't worry others can't see your interface unless they are touching you like I am."
"I did wonder why you suddenly held my hand." John said.
"Well, I need to be able to see the interface to guide you, also who says that's the only reason."
"Are you going to tell me another reason?"
"Nope."
John shook his head before looking back at the holographic display.
"Ok so you will want to set the max search level to five since that's your level, we will start with armor so select leather as your class can only wear leather or cloth and leather is better as it has more defense points."
"You may want to choose a cloth item in the future if its stats are crazy strong, but you don't need to worry about that at this point."
"Let's start with a chest piece."
"Wait, I also need five extra pieces of uncommon green gear" ." John said, getting a confused look from Silver Oracle who asked.
"Why?"
"How do I share an item's description with just you?" John asked.
"Simple, pull up your gear section and click the item with your finger before flicking it towards me, if in the future you want to share it to everyone nearby press it with your hand and just flick it upwards."
John opened his gear section and clicked Phanta before flicking his finger towards Silver Oracle.
He then watched in amusement as her face turned from confusion to shock and disbelief.
After which she quickly did something on her interface that gave John a notification.
[Private Call from: Silver Oracle]
[Accept] [Reject]
"Accept" John said before Silver Oracle said.
"You actually have a growth item and it's even a chest piece?"
"Yeah, I got it when I handed in the quest to the Mayor of Yesta Village." John answered before asking.
"Why did you call me?"
"Idiot it's to keep this a secret, while people will see us talking to each other they won't be able to hear anything since we are now on a private call and our mouths will be filtered so people won't be able to read our lips."
"More importantly do you know how rare a growth item is?"
"I don't, Phanta appears to have a long history though."
"What do you mean? It looks like a piece of old worn-out gear."
"Apparently it was left with the village a long time ago and back then it had power to rival a Transcendent item and it has a spirit and consciousness."