♕ was on her way north to the Azure forest, more of a sub-zone than anything.

♕: If these books are not lying... then we are in some deep s#!t... she said walking along a dirt road with a book in her hand and another dozen or so in her inventory.

Forest Cut-throat: I'm just happy you remembered about me in the end! the NPC exclaimed.

♕: Yeah, I'm sorry it took me three days.

Forest Cut-throat: It's alright, I started arranging the books into a house already. the NPC replied with a /laugh emote.

She let out an angry sigh.

♕: Why does he have to come with us though?! she demanded stopping and turning to face the modern-looking human following her.

Lorb: I'm VERY bored y'know, you people are the first ones to visit me in that little personal hell of mine, so I decided to follow you.

♕: And why are you following me!? She demanded turning to the cut-throat now.

Forest Cut-throat: I-I mean, we went through so much! Shouldn't we be a party now? Explore the wide world?

Lorb: I'm down if you guys are down. he replied placing his arms behind his head as he walked.

Forest Cut-throat: I'm down!

♕: Sorry to interrupt your thing, but I have ZERO interest in anything you just said.

Lorb: Come on! I'm sure you want to know more about the game! I have the entire source-code memorised!

♕: Yeah, I'll pass.

A moment of silence passed as ♕ returned to walking before turning back.

♕: The entire source code?

Lorb: From the 3D graphics libraries to the movement, everything.

Forest Cut-throat: I'm confused...

Lorb: Surely you could use that kind of knowledge for the game.

♕: I guess I could...

"If I had the source code, I could make a 1:1 copy of the game, not to mention the fact I could mess with this one as much as I want!"

♕: Alright... what do you want in return.

Lorb: Just let me and the Forest Cut-Throat follow you around.

♕: Alright, fine, send me the code.

Lorb: Yeah, no I can't do that.

♕: WHY NOT?!

Lorb: You wouldn't happen to have 16 spare petabytes on your PC's hard drive?

Another while of complete silence passed, Lorb looked onwards with the same plain smile, as usual, the cut-throat looked at them both in confusion as ♕ tried to comprehend what he just said.

♕: You... mean gigabytes? Right?

Lorb: Petabytes. 1,000,000,000,000,000

bytes.

♕: There's no way the source code is that big! The game is 80 gigs with the graphics!

Lorb: Well, the graphics are actually generated by the game, the material details, texture data and a few other variables are put into a script which pops out a texture and a material.

♕: ...

Lorb: Besides, if I start saying code out-loud in the chat, the game will kick me out for trying to hack.

♕: Don't you have admin privileges?!

Lorb: Only level 5 admin privileges, you'd want to be a level 3 or better to have that kind of access.

♕: ...

Lorb: After all, I am just a copy of Lorb.

Lorb: I don't carry a lot of information about him, his real name, age, memories of a family, nothing.

Forest Cut-throat: That sound pretty terrible...

Lorb: Nah, I'm not even sentient, you guys have it worse. he replied looking to the NPC.

Lorb: Much like a virus, I'm not really alive - I'm just a collection of gears and levers that resembles life.

Forest Cut-throat: That's even sadder...

♕: If you can't send the source code to me, why bring it up?!

Lorb: You could ask me about the mechanics of our security system, graphics, lighting engine or anything else and I could reply with the mechanism of how it works.

♕: I guess that's fine... Let's get going, then, I don't want to be late for the festival...

Lorb: Last mead?

Forest Cut-throat: Wait, we're actually going to last mead?!

♕: Well, since I can taste food - I decided I might as well try the festival booze.

Lorb: I like your thinking!

Forest Cut-throat: I would have never expected to visit a real festival!

♕: Oh, that's right - you NPCs never went to a festival, right?

Forest Cut-throat: Not me anyway, I was just stuck standing around in the rain, snow, lightning and sun, waiting in the bushes for any movement so I could jump out and get killed by someone twice my level...

♕: ...

Lorb: ...

Lorb: Now that's sad.

♕: I will make both of you really sad if we miss the booze! HURRY UP!

Lorb: Alright, alright.

The group walked in silence for a bit before Lorb broke the silence.

Lorb: You guys wanna see a cool trick?

♕: No.

Forest Cut-throat: Sure.

With a quick command, Lorb proceeded to mess with the NPC's and ♕'s code.

♕: What did you do? She asked seeing several alerts on her screen about someone messing with her variables.

Lorb: Check your pet list.

She did as asked and saw that there was a new entry on her pet menu.

♕: ...

Lorb: ...

Forest Cut-throat: What?

♕: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

Lorb: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

They both spammed the /laugh emote.

Forest Cut-throat: What the hell are you two laughing about?!

After the laughter died down a bit,

♕: Is that any way to speak to your owner? she asked with a shit-eating grin as she pointed to the tag above his head which read "???'s pet"

Forest Cut-throat: What the hell guys?!

Lorb: Thinking positively, you can enter her pet-storage any time.

Forest Cut-throat: Her what?

Forest cut-throat blushed

♕: Why did you blush?

Forest Cut-throat: ...

♕: ...

No reply.

♕: WHAT THE F#*K DO YOU THINK I DO WITH MY PETS, YOU FU#*ING DEGENERATE!?

Forest Cut-throat: I'M JUST NOW REALISING I WAS REDUCED TO A PET!

♕: BOLD OF YOU CALLING THAT STATUS-CHANGE A REDUCTION!

Lorb: I'm glad you two are having fun, but there is an actual advantage to this. he explained.

Lorb: You can set it so he is teleported in you pet-storage automatically when his health drops too low, essentially making him unkillable.

♕: I see...

Lorb: Of course, as a sentient NPC he has the ability to enter and leave the pet storage whenever he wants, plus he gets to see the world from your point of view when not summoned.

♕: Hmmm... I guess that is a solution for the NPC killing thing.

Lorb: If you say so. he replied with a smile.

♕: You don't sound convinced...

Lorb: Well, not being sentient really gives you a good look at the nature of humans, and I'm pretty sure that would end badly, though nothing is stopping players with the beast-trainer Auxilary class from getting pet NPCs.

Forest Cut-throat disappeared and reappeared seconds later.

Forest Cut-throat: It actually works!

♕: So, what's my pet-storage like?

Forest Cut-throat: I - I don't actually remember...

Lorb: That's to be expected, there isn't much there...

The group continued on their way to the festival...

Meanwhile...

Bonifacius, XxFxolyxX and Bromy were also on their way to the festival.

Bromy: It's nice to get to actually see the festival for once.

Bonifacius: Are thou SURE we should leave the town alone?!

XxFoxlyxX: It's not like we can babysit them forever!

Bromy: He's right, y'know - wasn't the plan to get them to govern and defend themselves?

Bonifacius: Perhaps thou are right... but I do not think they are ready yet!

XxFoxlyxX: Christ, you're like an over-protective parent...

Bonifacius: TIS NOT TRUE! I AM MERELY CONCERNED!

Bromy: Bony, you ordered them to eat slowly so they don't choke and die by accident...

Bonifacius: Tis because they only have one chance at life!

XxFoxlyxX: IS CHOKING EVEN A THING IN THIS GAME!?

Bromy: Who knows, but it never happened to me...

Bonifacius: Perhaps we should have told them to return home soon and lock the doors until morning!?

XxFoxlyxX: Bony, are you seriously trying to set them a bedtime?

Bonifacius: ...

Bromy: If the guild will strike NPC-hunter guild strikes anywhere, it would be the festival, think of the hundreds of NPC that could want to see a festival first-hand... he suggested.

Bonifacius pondered the idea, Bonifacius: Thou may be right...

Bromy and XxFoxlyxX exchanged a relieved look.

Bonifacius: But what if one should slip down their stairs and slowly bleeds out over the period of several hours?

Bromy: Bony, if you don't stop that I will join that SilverPeak guild and kill-off the entire town myself.

Bonifacius: Thou shouldn't even jest about such things!

XxFoxlyxX: I'll mute you if you don't stop being an over-protective mom, Bonifacius.

And so the party also decided to the festival.

Meanwhile...

JohnWillStab was practising his fighting with Kwispii, while he still did not stand a chance in a proper fight against him, he improved drastically.

Kwispii: You are learning fast, good. he said taking a step back.

JohnWillStab: Glad to hear it!

Kwispii: At this rate, you will be done soon, but mastering fighting style is up to you.

JohnWillStab: I doubt I'll be as good as you. he replied sitting down, lately, he was starting to not only feel the cold but also the exhaustion of his character in real life, if not for the infinite stamina bar he would have probably died.

Kwispii: This is 75% mark on your training, we should celebrate. he replied as he looked through his inventory.

JohnWillStab: Celebrate? We've been drinking twice a day, every day already! he exclaimed terrified at the concept of increasing this number any higher.

If the grammar wasn't a good enough indicator, the alcohol consumption revealed his nationality pretty well.

Kwispii: There will be festival happening soon, we should go.

JohnWillStab: A festival? You mean the one with the fish-people and booze?

Kwispii nodded.

Kwispii: Yes. he looked at JohnWillStab.

Kwispii: But you will need new clothes. he added.

Thanks to the rigorous training, most of the clothes JohnWillStab had were destroyed, leaving him with nothing but his scarf and shredded trousers.

JohnWillStab: Yeah, I guess I should go buy a shirt or something. he laughed.

Kwispii: No need, I will give you bear-temple clothes.

JohnWillStab: Bear-temple clothes?

Kwispii: Yes, usually I would give you after you finish training, but I have no doubt you will manage.

JohnWillStab: Alright!

Kwispii: Good, get dressed and let's get going. he said trading JohnWillStab the armour.