New armor! Nice! I briefly glanced at the stats. Woah, this would increase my armor by 2 and bring my Health up to 63.

I immediately equipped it.

Although I had only just recently received new armor, a free upgrade was always welcome. Now I just needed new swords, a couple of magic items, and maybe a bow. Since I was a high dex elf I should be able to use one. Probably.

Just as I was about to tell Lore about my good fortune, a rogue sauntered up to us. This guy had long blonde hair, tan skin, and wore a grin I could only describe as punchable.

“So, a little bard and a rare arcane assassin, huh?”

I Observed this guy.

[Eldin Rasberryferret. Level 8. 108 HP. 63 Mana.]

Raspberryferret?

Lore bowed formally. “Greetings, Thief Rasberryferret. We were sent to help you with your task.”

Oh shit. I bowed swiftly as well.

“Ah, you caught me.” He then elegantly returned the bow. “Pleasure to meet you both. And now that the formalities are over, just call me Eldin. My clan is a bit odd.”

“I believe your request is odder. I honestly wonder why you didn’t ask your friends to help you with it.”

He laughed darkly. “I have. And we’ve tried. Everyone always dies. The event also doesn't happen every night so it’s inconvenient to make multiple attempts.” He sighed. ”Unfortunately, I need to win the event for a personal quest I’m on. And the guild happened to owe me one.”

Lore and I looked at each other, silently agreed to let him keep his privacy, and nodded.

“Is it starting soon?” I asked.

He nodded. “Tomorrow night, and it will go until dawn, then, if there is no winner, they’ll do a second one the next day and no more after that for 4 days. And there hasn’t been a winner since this event started appearing about two months ago.”

“Seriously, still no winner?”

“Well, it takes place in an out of the way location where most people stay a single night then leave in the morning. Those who participate are mostly continuing onto Blue Crane Flies Over Troubled Water City, or they ride one of the boats to Holdyn Outpost if they’re heading up north.”

“Have you been up north before?”

He nodded. “That’s where I originally entered the sim. I was down here doing side quests with friends but, after a while, they had to return. And, since I don’t know a lot of people around here, I had to request help.”

“Alright everyone,” Captain Briack called, interrupting our conversation. ”Return to your positions!”

The arrows reappeared and we followed them. When we reached Lore’s spot I shuddered. That whole section of wall now dipped several feet, and the railing behind us had been completely decimated. If we hadn’t run when we did, both of us would have died.

Speaking of death, I noticed that the ranks seemed a little sparse. But I couldn’t remember any of the faces of the people who went missing. I just knew they were missing. Fuck, that was creepy. Like there was someone that I knew had existed but I couldn’t remember them.

But as creepy as it was, it didn’t feel that important so I quickly forgot about it.

***

The next morning we hopped into our carriage. This time our new ‘friend,’ came with us.

“While we're here, let’s talk about the event. What do we need to know?” Lore started.

Eldin sat back in a languid and careless manner. “This is a closed three-man team event, meaning that each team is a small group of three players and once it starts, no new players can enter.

“Also, it is similar to the inn events, in that, if you die, you don’t exist for 6 whole hours.”

I shuddered.

He noticed and smirked. “Relax. Not existing for 6 hours isn’t that bad. It’s like a time jump.”

Lore leaned closer. “And what are the specifics of the event?”

“It’s a little odd.” He took out a dagger and started to nervously toss it in tight circles then catch it. ”It’s designed to generally let players of all levels participate. Well, for the most part. But I’ll get into that later. Basically, in order to win a certain prize and some Passive Marks, we need to help fix the inn and solve a mystery. Which sounds simple, but it’s not.”

His eyes grew dark as if remembering something awful and he paused his nervous knifeplay. “Even now, I have no idea what the mystery entails aside from a few minor clues I’ve come into contact with outside the inn. Which is another thing. When you lose, you don’t remember any of the clues. The information is erased from your mind... and anywhere you write it.”

“So, every time you participate, is it like your first time?”

“Almost. There are still some aspects of the event that I remember. For example, how to fix the inn.”

I leaned forward when he seemed to pause for too long.

“At the start, they give you the speal about the history of the inn and why it’s important to fix and get up and running again. Each group gets a list of places where they need to take time to fix something. Then you are given tickets to rent special tools that can let you easily fix those locations, giving you extra time to look for clues. The issue comes with collecting the tools. Because they’re very-very useful but optional.

”Generally, even without tools, you’ll have to find the right combination of items in the area to fix the thing that’s broken. It will just take time that you could have spent looking for important clues to solve the mystery.”

“Okay,” I said, “but what’s the issue with the tools?”

“Calm down. I was getting there.”

He winked at me and flipped his knife again.

Lore shifted, ending up closer to me. I glanced at him but he still paid rapt attention to our thief friend.

“Inside the inn, you cannot fight. No spells, No abilities. Maybe some simple dodge skills, but nothing combat-oriented. This is to let players at lower level participate, and makes the area equally dangerous for everyone, because, let me tell you, it’s superbly dangerous. So dangerous that even after spending two months on it, I’m not any closer.

“Also,” he held up his index finger, “there is one exception to the no fighting rule and that is the inner courtyard.

“The inn is massive, built in the shape of a ring with a garden in the middle. And at the center of that garden, is a small pond with a little island. The island has a fake mountain on it where you’ll find an automatic kiosk. At this kiosk, one person can put in a ticket and get a tool.”

“One person?”

He grimaced. “Yeah. While you generally get more than three tasks to fix parts of the inn, you can only take out one tool per person. The only exception is if you return your tool after using it and put in a different ticket, which rarely happens as most of the time you’ll all be dead by whatever kills everyone inside the inn.”

Fuck, that sounded scary.

“So, I take it, people will fight and kill each other in that courtyard so they can’t get tools?”

He nodded. “The stronger players tend to go at it with each other in that area to let their lower leveled allies have a chance at collecting tools for their group. Or, if you’re like us, you stealth your way in and out.”

“And hope you don’t get murdered by a random magic blast.”

He shrugged. “It happens but if you do too much damage to the inn, you’re murdered by the staff.”

“Right, because we’re there to fix it, not destroy it.”

He nodded. “Which is also another reason why no fighting inside the inn is required.”

“So, are there any items we need to pick up that will be useful?”

He shrugged. “Honestly, anything that can help you survive for another second would be useful, but I wouldn’t rely on it. Everything necessary is already in the inn.”

“You mentioned a prize if we win,” Lore said.

“That...” He evaded Lore’s gaze and put away his knife.

“We have a quest item as payment already for just coming here and helping you but, frankly, if you want us to give it our all so you can take the prize, we need some incentive. Especially because both of us are low on funds.”

He thought about it for a bit. “Alright. I need the item from winning but I’ll give your team a quarter of the Passive Marks.”

Lore smirked. “Hmm? Why don’t we split it evenly? Each person gets a third?”

“Ah, But I’ve done this before. I’ve spent months on this event and I know the inn like the back of my hand. I even made maps of the areas I was able to remember!”

The two went back and forth a few more times before Eldin grumpily threw his hand up and said, “Fine, we’ll split it so you two get half and I get the other half.”

“Fine,” Lore grimaced but the corners of his lips turned up.

Eldin eyed him and groaned. “Ugh. I should know better than to try and barter with a bard.”

I nodded with enthusiastic agreement. Lore had likely been aiming for at least half considering that I was too new to deserve a full third and Lore was half this guy’s level.

***

The thick-walled outpost, where the event would occur, was only a half-day journey from the previous inn so we managed to arrive around midday.

While the inns along our journey had been enormous, they were essentially just inns. There wasn't much to them. Maybe just a few small shops within, similar to some of the medium-sized hotels found in large cities, but not much else. This outpost, on the other hand, had houses, standalone shops, and several inns. It still wasn’t huge like a city but it was at least the size of a town.

Eldin brought us to the docks first so we could check out the prices of each boat type.

Apparently, most people used the fairy that arrived twice a day to reach the northern outpost, but there were also fishing vessels and even a few rare and slightly pricey magic boats. These were automatic and self-driving. Anyone could rent one and have it carry them wherever. The price per day made us both cringe. While we made some money during that huge battle it wasn’t nearly enough to cover the cost of the boat, even after selling off my old armor.

When I messaged Lore to ask if we could also sell some of the magic items we purchased he shook his head, saying that it wasn’t a good idea at the moment and that we needed to wait to sell them when we reached a city further away from the Crimsondahlia clan.

That made sense.

It would also take us a while to find a buyer who’d pay a price similar to what we paid for them.

Eldin, then brought us to Vermillionjoy’s Red Roof Inn, no relation to that chain in our world with a similar name.

The roof of this inn was literally red. Well, it had been red. At this point, it appeared a bit pink from being bleached by the sun for so many years.

“This is where we’ll meet when the sun sets. I have a few more things I want to research about this outpost before it starts so just go inside before then and we’ll get into our groups for the event.” Eldin rubbed his hands together excitedly. “This time we need to win!”

And we needed that half of the prize money to fund our travel expenses or we’d have to quickly find another way to make money.