Taran was a nice village, not as big as the towns like Urbus, and certainly a far cry from the town of beginnings, but it had all the basics: an inn, a few food shops, a general store, weapon and armor shops, and quite a few rent-able shops that players had started renting. One player opened a stand that served a really good noodle soup. I would encourage his business by having a meal there on occasion. Generally it was a quiet place with few players, which was fine by me. I could work on leveling in relative peace.

It's tough to go up levels. I had to do all the town quests to make it to my current level. Long and tedious, to say the least, but at least your life is not on the line. I wouldn't have been able to walk out of town without raising my level at least a little. Just to get to Taran from Urbus required protection from other players who were kind enough to take me there. Town quests may be safe but they don't pay well. I'd probably have run out of money if I hadn't hunted.

I wandered through the streets looking for appropriate shops to unload my inventory. In the game the shops would buy stuff you wouldn't have imagined you could sell. But if a creature dropped it; you could sell it. I had some meat, a few bug shells, and some spider silk. "Who needs spider silk?" I wondered. "Perhaps a clothing shop would give me something for it." After I unloaded the rest of my inventory, I headed for the clothes shop. I greeted the NPC shop owner and he greeted me back.

"Welcome to my clothing store."

Typical greeting.

"I'm so glad you came in today, I'm in somewhat of a bind you see, and I was thinking you could help me."

Not your typical greeting.

I gathered this was some kind of quest. I agreed, so the shop owner continued. "I've been trying to get new materials for a dress, but this design requires me to mix spider silk with the other materials for strength. I've looked around but no one has any in stock. It should be collectible from the spiders that occupy the woods outside of town. Would you be able to get me some?"

The quest window popped up in front of me. "What a stroke of good luck : I HAVE the silk!" I thought to myself. I immediately accepted the quest. "Thank you, come and see me when you've got the silk." the store owner responded.

I left the store, turned around, and then walked back in, greeting the store owner as I had before. "Welcome to my clothes store. Did you manage to get some spider silk?" the NPC responded. I transferred the silk via my trade window and in exchange an item was traded back to me.

"Oh! This is perfect. Please accept these gloves in exchange for your troubles. Thank you and have a nice day." Looking at the trade window where the new item has appeared and I selected the item's information window. At the top it said "Spider silk gloves" and the details gave a general armor bonus with an extra bonus against spiders.

"This would have resisted the spider silk attack. I know someone who could have used this." I grumbled as I remembered the close call with the spider. Storing the gloves in my inventory, I noticed the dagger I put there earlier. "This isn't really mine; I should return it to her." My face screwed up out of personal annoyance.

"I don't even know her name."