~ 1.05 - A World Controlled by Marbles ~

Flea’s MicroWorld

Tuesday, June 10th

Kyle found himself back at the house he had built in his MicroWorld. He walked outside and towards the pavilion. The Fantasy door was closed and had a timer displaying 00:58:46. He figured he had died and was now locked out of the game till the timer counted down to zero.

“What happens if someone resurrects you?”

[A prompt would pop up asking if you wished to accept the resurrection. You would then be teleported back into Fantasy from where you received the prompt.]

Walking back into the house, he noticed the screen in the living room was on. The screen was displaying the area around his corpse as it lay in the field. He sat down on one of the chairs in front of the screen and watched as the guard from earlier at the gate walked down to his corpse and dragged it off the path. The guard then picked up his daggers, pocketing them. The guard started shouting to someone in the distance, but he couldn’t hear anything the guard had said.

[You can control the view of the camera above your corpse Kyle. The camera’s position may not be moved, but you can rotate the camera around your corpse to watch what's happening around it. You won’t be able to hear anything; just watch. Using mental commands, you can pan and tilt the camera or dictate what you would like to happen, and I can move the camera for you]

“Could keep the camera centered on the closest person?”

The camera panned to the right, centering on a player that was running through the field. The player stopped, whipped around, notched an arrow, pulled back, and released the arrow at the rabbit chasing him and missed. The player stomped his foot and sprinted away from the rabbit. Kyle watched as the player did this two more times before another rabbit hidden in the field’s grass jumped and impaled the player with its horn. The player dropped like a ton of bricks, and both rabbits hopped towards their previous locations.

“Bob, with the time flowing differently here from Fantasy, why isn’t this video three times slower?”

[I can control the compression. Watching the live feed would be unenjoyable at a third of the speed, so I’ve changed the flow of time to match Fantasy’s.]

“That makes sense, thank you.”

Kyle watched two other players die by horned rabbits before he spotted Martina come into view, killing rabbits with no issues. Martina would wait for the horned rabbit to jump at him, move to the side, and stabbed the rabbit in the neck with his sword, then bend down and stuff the rabbit into his magic bag. He did this five more times before walking back towards the town.

He must be bringing the rabbits to a tanner to be skinned.

Kyle watched the players around his corpse for a while longer. Hearing a chime come from the monolith that held Fantasy’s door, he got up and logged back into the game.

He materialized at the Crystal in the center of the town square and walked back to the gate. The same guard turned around and waved him over.

“Lesson learned, I hope. Outside of any town and city, you are no longer in a safe zone. Once you leave the gates, always make sure you watch your surroundings. When you die, everything you’re carrying outside your magic bag and soul bound items will stay with your corpse. I walked down and grabbed these for you before another adventurer could swipe them from your corpse.”

“Thank you...? ” Flea asked, hoping for his name.

“Flynn and you’re welcome. Make sure you pay attention next time. We need you guys to thin these horned bastards out. There seem to be a limitless amount of them these past few days. One of the town’s Elders thinks a portal opened up below ground to the Beast Moon. We’re going to have to find it and close it soon before larger beasts find their way onto our island.”

“Nice to meet you, Flynn. I’m Flea. Beast Moon and portals?

The Guard pointed up towards one of the moons. Looking up at the indicated moon, he found it completely covered by vast swaths of green land masses with little seas. However, it did have long, wide rivers which formed a criss-crossing pattern on the landscape. .

“We call it the Beast Moon, but it’s the world where the Mantid and other insectoid races originated. Portals will open up randomly from time to time that connect Mea with the various moons. This rabbit population most likely entered the portal in hopes of finding food or to get away from a much larger predator.”

Flea thanked Flynn and started his walk back down the path. Reaching the bottom, he crept slowly and watched the grass for any movements. Noticing the grass rustle to his right, he turned towards it, jumping back a little as the horned rabbit jumped towards his previous location. As the horned rabbit passed by within inches, he swung his dagger at its side, resulting in a shallow cut. The rabbit squealed as it hit the ground, turning towards him to jump again. Flea jumped back and raised his daggers.

Are there no health bars for monsters?

As the rabbit jumped again, he sidestepped, stabbing his dagger into the rabbit’s neck, killing it. The rabbit hit the ground with a thud and lay motionless.

No experience notifications? Are they not worth anything?

He bent down and grabbed the scruff of the rabbit, and wiped the blood off the dagger on the rabbit's fur before putting it into his magic bag.

Over the next two hours, he developed a rhythm killing another fifteen rabbits filling the remaining spots in his bag.

I wish they stacked so I could keep farming.

“Hey Flynn, could you direct me to a butcher or someone who can help me skin these rabbits?”

“Sure. Follow the inner wall to the left past the shed, and you'll find The Pit. They can skin and butcher most of your kills. They’ll barter with you if you lack coin.”

Thanking Flynn, he followed the wall till the stench hit him full force moments before he came upon a large dugout pit with the remains of discarded carcass in it. Against the wooden palisade, he spotted three tables, each occupied by someone working on a creature’s corpse. Two of them were Dwarfs working on rabbit corpses. The third was a large Tiger Beastkin with bright orange and white fur working on a large bear with some kind of spikes on it. Flea coughed into his fist to get their attention.

“Hello, can I work with one of you to get my rabbits skinned?”

“Sure, how do you want to pay?” The older Dwarf asked.

“What are my options? I have no coin on me yet.”

“We can barter for services. How many rabbits do you have?”

“I have sixteen on me currently, but I will have more after this.”

“Do you need the skins, meat, horns, or cores?”

“I don’t need meat. I’d like to keep the skins, horns, and cores. I was told I needed them to upgrade my magic bag.”

The two Dwarfs chuckled.

“You’ll need cores for a lot more than your magic bag. We can buy the meat for three copper a rabbit, and we charge two copper per rabbit to skin and butcher them. We’d give you a copper, skin, horn, and a magic core if you didn’t destroy it during the fight. Do you agree with our offer?”

“Yes, please. Thank you for your help. I’m Flea.”

“Gronky, this burly Dwarf is my son Kelvin, and the fellow butchering the terrorbear is Stanley. You can find us three around The Pit during the normal work hours. If you don't know the day’s schedule, you can ask one of the receptionists over at the Adventurers' Guild next time you stop by to give you a parchment that explains the workday and bell tolls for you. You’ll find every town and city follows the same basic schedule. It’s good for you to know.”

“Thank you Gronky, here are my rabbits. Do I have to wait for you to butcher them, or can I go back to hunting them and bring back more?”

“You can leave them here, put them in this sack, so we’ll know what batch is yours.”

Gronky handed him a sack. Flea put his sixteen rabbits into it and gave it back. He said his goodbyes and left them to it. Returning to the fields, he continued hunting more rabbits. When his bag was once again full, he returned to The Pit. They still hadn’t gotten to his previous rabbits. He deposited the sixteen into the same sack from before and went back to the town square, sat on one of the benches, and logged out.

Getting up, Kyle checked the time, 02:00 am. He popped into the bathroom to take care of his body’s needs. After grabbing a small snack in the kitchen, he went into his room and laid back down in his bed to delve back in.

As he started his third trip grinding the rabbits, another player came running through the fields close to him yelling and screaming for help. Looking, Flea could see the player had three rabbits chasing after him. Before Flea could even respond, two of the three rabbits chasing the player turned and jumped towards Flea. He could barely dodge the first when the second rabbit’s horns hit his arm, causing a large gash. With him now avoiding three rabbits, he couldn't stand still long enough to attack any of them.

Flea took off in a sprint towards the town’s gate. Halfway up the path, he spotted a group of players coming down from the entrance and started shouting, “TRAIN!” Most of the players understood what was happening and turned, running behind the guard. A player wasn’t fast enough, and two of the rabbits chasing Flea jumped towards him, killing him instantly. With two rabbits off Flea, he turned around, dodging to the side of the third rabbit, and stabbed his dagger into its neck, killing it.

Turning around, he found the other two rabbits hopping down the path after killing the player. Sitting down to take a breather, Flea noticed the edge of his vision was turning red. He inspected his arm and found the gash was still bleeding. One of the players walked down from the safety of the guard and motioned to his wound.

“I should be able to help you with that.”

“Please, my vision is getting a red tint, and I have no idea how to patch up wounds in the game yet.”

Nodding, the player took out a jar of some type of ground-up paste and applied it to the wound. Using a thin strip of cloth, he wrapped it and tied it off to keep the paste in the wound.

“Thank you, you were my first experiment,” the player said.

“Experiment?”

“Yeah, sorry. I learned that Hollyhock could be used to stop bleeding and close wounds from an alchemist at The Silver Pestle. You were the first player who had a wound that wasn’t dead; I could try it on. How's your vision now?”

“It’s lightish-red now. It seems it’s working, thank you. I didn’t want to have to wait to spawn again. I’m Flea.”

“Names Frustrated. Nice to meetcha.”

“Where did you find the Hollyhock? I need it for the quest I have for The Silver Pestle as well.”

“You can find it around most of the trunks of large trees in the forest. It seems to like the shade the larger trees provide. Here is what it looks like.”

He pulled out an orange bellflower on a long stalk with its roots still attached.

“Make sure you dig out the roots when harvesting the plant, or it will die right away. The flower’s properties are all health-related. The flower and roots can be ground into the paste I just used on you. They’re also used in the creation of lesser health potions. Once you bring them to Silverfang at The Silver Pestle, she can explain more to you.”

“Thanks again, Frustrated.”

Flea sat a few more minutes for his vision to clear up entirely. Going back down into the fields, he hunted another sixteen rabbits. Upon arriving at The Pit, Gronky handed him a small cloth bag with 32 copper coins, thirty-two rabbit hides and horns. There were three dull-looking marbles also inside the bag.

“These marbles the cores?” Flea asked.

“Yep, there are only dull cores but are worth anywhere between one and four energy each, so it’s a good start for a new adventure. You could sell them for a few silver coins each, but they would do you better if you used them,” Gronky replied.

So that's how you gain experience in Fantasy. You don’t get experience from every monster you kill, just the ones that drop their cores.

“Why don’t creatures give a core every time?”

“There are various reasons. Not every creature develops a core before they’re slain. That will mostly be true for young creatures like the horned rabbits you’ve been killing. The inexperienced ones who do develop their core may pull on all of the energy within their core during a fight, shattering it.”

“How can I use these cores?”

“You crush them in your hand to release the stored energy, and your body kinda drinks it in. I’ll warn you now, the best time to use your cores is in the privacy of your room back at whichever inn you chose before you go to sleep. If others see your cores, they might try and kill you for them, so keep them in your magic bag till you use them.”

“Thank you for the information and warning; it helps big time. I have sixteen more rabbits here, and I’ll be back with more soon.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, three long gongs could be heard in the distance.

“That's the evening’s three bells. All shops and workers will be closing up and heading home or to the pubs for a drink or twelve. Five for my boy Delvin, damn lightweight, but kids only a hundred and six. You can swing by tomorrow, and I should have your rabbits done by noon.”

I need to get that bell guide at the Guild Hall.

“Will the Guild be closing as well? Also, could you recommend an Inn for me to stay while in Noto?”

“Nah, the Adventure Guild Hall is open all the time. You’ll always find someone on staff in case of an emergency. I’d recommend any Inn around the center square. You can get a nice room and food for coppers a night.”

“Thank you, Gronky. I’ll take my leave and head to the square to see if any of the inns have a vacancy. I’ll be back tomorrow with more rabbits as well. You guys take care.”

Flea walked towards the square and couldn’t help but ponder how lifelike each of the NPCs he had met so far. They didn’t have the standard responses like other games he’d played. Gronky had responded to all of his questions as if he was a Human playing a Dwarf. There was no puzzled look that the NPCs in Phantasmal Realms gave when you tried to talk about topics outside of their pre-programmed scripts. It was simply astounding. As he got closer to the town’s square, Flea could hear the distant yelling and shouts from multiple people looking for groups and bartering.

“Can someone give me five copper so I can rent a room tonight?”

“Looking for a group for these damn rabbits down the trail from the front gate, I can’t kill them solo.”

“Selling rabbits hide four copper each, Hollyhock four copper! Buying Iron ore for three copper a piece!

Others were shouting the general same three things. He thought about helping out one or two of them, but he wanted to get a jump start on the players and leave Noto Island as soon as he could. The first inn he found was called The Drunken Ogre and had a wooden sign in the shape of an ogre sprawled out as if he was on the floor. Opening the door, he was assaulted by the inn’s noises, everyone eating, drinking, and talking away in the common room. He slipped through the crowd and made his way to the bar and waved down the Elven barkeep.

“Hello, do you guys have any room available?”

“We have a few rooms left, five coppers a night, dinner and breakfast included.” The barkeep shouted over the noise.

“I’ll take a room please, can I come back later for my dinner, and can I take it up to my room?”

“No problem, just flag me down when you get back. Make sure you’re back by the evening’s five bells. We stop serving guest’s dinner at sunset. You’ll have to pay for food after that time. Here’s your key. You’re the last room on the left on the 3rd floor.”

Flea thanked the barkeep and left the inn. He headed to the Guild first to ask about the bell schedule and find a town or island map. The players were still shouting for groups, and some begging for help. Walking through the Adventurers’ Guild door, he found it barren compared to earlier in the day. He didn’t see Nuelelth at the front desk. He walked up to the Feline Beastkin. He was a tuxedo cat, all black with white on his jaw and his ears’ tips.

“Hello, I was wondering if you could direct me to the bell guide and a possible map of the island?”

“I sure can, chap! I can sell you a Noto Map for ten coppers, and you can find the bell schedule to the right of the door on those shelves behind you,” the Beastkin said.

“Thank you. I’d like to buy the map, please. Names Flea, what may I call you?”

“Nice to meet you, names Fenix. You have yourself a lot more manners than these other new adventures around the island. They're all demanding everything, even crying when you give them nothing more for free besides the starter gear. Here’s your map. Anything else I can assist you with?”

“No, that's it, and thank you, Fenix.”

Flea placed the ten copper in Fenix’s hand, grabbing the map off the desk and walked to the side of the door with the shelves. He took a parchment with the bell schedule and a small guide on identifying local fauna. He left with everything he wanted from the Guild’s Hall and started to head to the west side of town to speak with Zelken and maybe learn a skill or two if he could afford it.