Hey there. It's been awhile hasn't it? I had originally intended to explain myself with how there is only so much time in the day and that there is a lot of stuff I want to do with my time. Then July rolled around and all the sudden I got laid off from work. Which while I now had time to write, my motivation was now thoroughly murdered. Found a new job, but now found it deeply hard to sit down and actually crank this out. The result caused this to be out way later than I ever intended and for that I am sorry.
Sword Art Online SI
The NPC Experience
We were now two and a half weeks into SAO now and as I feared my customer traffic was starting to slow down. I still experienced a mildly regular flow of players to visit me, but some quick mental calculation and reviewing my log during downtime allowed me to calculate that roughly about 75% of the playerbase had done every quest I'd made so far for the local monsters close to town. I needed to branch out further or my cash flow would soon stop in its entirety! I had to either think of a new quest chain within the next week or so, or it would be time for me to move on to a new town on the floor and set up shop there.
While manning my stall in the town square like usual, I took out the latest version of Argo's guide that I had acquired from one of the local item shops. Suck it Argo! You're not getting a single Col out of me for the rest of the floor! I grinned to myself as I skimmed through the section about the Town of Beginnings and it's surrounding area, search for monster or item information I hadn't used yet in quests before a short passage brought me up short.
Holy crap I'M in the guide! I winced as Argo went on to describe me more or less as the Merchant of Ham. Ok fine, she didn't literally call me that but I can read subtext damn it! What was more alarming though was the detailed way she marked and listed places I frequently showed up at in town. Even when I wasn't out running errands but merely sightseeing. It was more than a little creepy to be honest, was Argo stalking me?
It took every ounce of self control I had to not glance around searching for Argo hiding in the square. Cmon, that's stupid. She has better things to do than follow me around all day. Another chilling thought struck me. Maybe she just hires other players to keep tabs on me….
I mentally shook myself to try to bring my thoughts in order as I continued to read my entry. She had a detailed list of all the quests I had given so far, complete with monsters to kill, items to gather, along with suggested key words to prompt me to give them or suggested times of day to visit me or locations to try to catch me in to prompt different outcomes. I scanned other entries about quest NPCs in town, but none of them moved around like I did or had the variety I did. It even turned out that I had accidentally duplicated a few other quests that other NPCs gave, which Argo also commented on.
It didn't seem too bad, putting aside her rather unflattering description of my NPC persona, she didn't seem to think I was anything other than one of the NPCs in the game. I'll have to see how things change when I start popping up in other locations, but things seemed to be good for now. If worst comes to worst I can try to build up my indispensability to the PCs. Any gamer worth their salt wouldn't be above exploiting the benefits I had to offer, even if I was strange.
Ok…..note to self, stop calling myself strange.
"Excuse me…..." a girl's voice called out to me, bringing me back to the present as I looked up from the guide to see a group of returned players, a party of three, all of which were a group of redheaded girls all wearing color coordinated leather armor. I hurriedly pocketed Argo's guide when I realized the other two members were eyeing it with a confused look as the leader of the party said "We've finished the quest you gave us!"
Cocoa, Mint, and Kiara have completed the quest: The Long Grind!
My log chimed as I received the requested items and paid out the EXP required. These names…..I think I recognize them! I couldn't help but grin as I stood up to address them with my left hand dramatically upraised and my right hand subtly hidden in my pocket as I fiddled with my menu from there, my two weeks for practice letting me do it from memory. "Thank you kind ladies! If you have further time, I have a most important task for you!"
Girls were uncommon enough to be a point of interest in the primary male population of SAO, parties of all girls were an even more gossiped topic. You'd think the players had nothing better to do with their time! When I first met this party when they stopped in to get my quests they had tickled my memory with familiarity, but it was only a few days ago did it finally pop into my head that I recognized them. In the Hollow Fragment SAO timeline these girls were future members of the Assault Team and fairly powerful ones at that. If I was right about this and these girls had that same potential, they could be just what I needed. I finished manipulating my menus and sent the quest notification I had carefully prepared.
Quest Alert!
The Trek to Tolbana!
The road calls to us all! It is our duty to answer! Escort Lyrista the Merchant to Tolbana so that he may expand his trade! Do not allow him to come to harm and you shall be richly rewarded!
Bring Lyrista to Tolbana safely to complete your mission!
Bonus objective: Lyrista arrives at Tolbana completely undamaged!
Quest fails if Lyrista dies!
Recommended Level: 9
Forgive me Gamer Gods for I have sinned. I have spawned the dreaded Escort Quest. Hated and reviled everywhere. Every Gamer out there can no doubt think of at least one game they've played off the top of their head that had an escort quest featuring an NPC either as slow as a snail you constantly had to wait for, had the mental capacity of a retarded three year old, exploded if you so much as sneezed in their general direction, clearly had at least one parent that was a lemming, or just flat out did their damnedest to get you killed while they strolled invulnerable through every hazard they had an uncontrollable urge to go straight through.
Lucky for my escorters, I had a well developed sense of self preservation that will keep me from acting like a moron on escort quests. Yep, totally well behaved. Surely I have thought of everything and nothing can possibly go wrong with this!
The girls read the quest I sent them and quickly turned to each other as they pulled out their own copies of Argo's guide and began to read through it rapidly while searching for something.
"Tolbana? Where is that located? Is there map information out for it?" Cocoa asked her team as she read.
Wait what? Shouldn't that information be available? I controlled the urge to pull out my copy of Argo's guide as I frantically racked my brain trying to recall the timeline.
Mint frowned as she continued to flip from page to page, "Nothing….the guide doesn't have any information at all….maybe it's undiscovered?"
I struggled to keep my expression composed as I could practically feel the digital sweat rolling down my face. What the heck is going on?! I thought Tolbana was discovered three weeks into…
My thoughts came to a screeching halt as the I recalculated the date. We were two and a half weeks into the game! Tolbana hadn't been reached yet by the front liners!
"Do you think this quest is bugged?" Kiara asked as the girl's discussion continued.
"It can't be, we just must have been the first to unlock this quest! If we complete it, we could sell this information to Argo and get some great Col off it! We've hit the recommended level as well, we should be set!" Cocoa said making the other two nod in agreement.
"The NPC must know the way, he'll guide us and we just have to get him there in one piece, easy right?" Mint exclaimed with a grin. The girls reached a consensus and turned back to me with a bright smile.
"We'll take the quest!" they said as one.
The ringing chime of the quest being accepting felt like a death knell on my soul as I mentally floundered for a response. The girls took my silence for consent as they chattered among themselves about the preparations they were going to make as I slowly slumped back into my seat with a dead look in my eyes. It's time for my first escort quest as an NPC. To be taken to a player unexplored town within a stones throw of the Labyrinth.
A town I had no clue how to get to. I flopped face first onto the table of my stall as I couldn't help the scream of frustration that burst forth.
"GOD DAMN IT!"
There we go. There's Chapter 7. I am terribly sorry this took so long to get out to you all. I hope it was worth the wait. Thanks for your continued support and your feedback as well. I'll get the next out as soon as I can.
