I dropped off one of the wooden mugs in front of a grateful Zach and sat down heavily in another seat at the table with a deep sigh. A long pull out of the mug in my hand preceded another sigh, this time one of satisfaction. I could easily see why the Inn would be crowded even so early in the evening if the ale on tap was this good.

“Who’s this?” Zach asked, looking at Amanda.

Before I could berate myself for failing to introduce the woman I realized her name was above her head. So I explained our encounter in the barest detail before taking another pull from my mug, “We ran into an idiot at the bar so I let her know she could join our table.”

“Ah. The assholes seem to be out in force today. Nice to meet you Amanda,” Zach lifted his mug in a toast to her and promptly drank deeply from it.

“Thanks,” Amanda said. Now that I saw her up close and in the light of a lamp hanging on a nearby wall I could see that she was beautiful. Her eyes were actually a silver color and seemed to reflect the light in a fascinating way. It distracted me at first from noticing that beneath her very pale skin was what looked to be scales.

“Did you pick Drakken?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Half,” she explained, though she looked distracted and her gaze wandered the Inn. Then I remembered the friend she mentioned and looked over to see a level three Gnome walking over to our table by the name of Jennifer. Amanda smiled at the Gnome when she caught sight of her and waved her over to the last seat.

“This is Jennifer,” Amanda said by way of introduction.

Though I probably should have let it go, I couldn’t resist the sarcastic comment that slipped out, “Really.” Her name was displayed above her head in big green letters after all.

Amanda blushed furiously and muttered, “Right, sorry. Old habits and all.”

I was about to apologize for the remark when Jennifer spoke up and took me off guard, “Not all the information above people’s heads is necessarily accurate.”

She was staring straight at me when she said it. With light brown hair and ice blue eyes it was an unnerving gaze and something told me that she could see past my Deception skill.

“You have the Perception skill, I take it?” I guessed.

She nodded in the affirmative with a disarming smile. “A week ago I wanted to catch another pet that liked to hide in the shadows a lot. Really annoying to find.”

It didn’t take long to do the math and the result was clear. Nobody but developers were connected a week ago, as far as I knew. The first backers, the ones who had given the most in the initial campaign, had only been able to get in four days earlier.

“A week ago, huh?” I said lightly but with enough emphasis to make my point. Maybe we both had secrets and I could keep hers if she’d keep mine.

She looked down at the table but looked back up when I continued, “So what have you been up to? And how many pets do you have exactly?”

“Yeah, and can we see one?” Zach said with a soft belch.

Jennifer looked at me with a smile and I could tell the intelligence in her eyes had nothing to do with racial bonuses. I was pretty confident about our little unspoken agreement. Although, I wasn’t really concerned about it. I didn’t have a solid reason for my secrecy besides general sneakiness at the moment anyways.

“Sure!” she said with enthusiasm and reached into a small pack behind her. Up her arm crawled a tiny squirrel. If squirrels were all black, scaled, and had tails that inspired fear with their pointed tip rather than the bushy fluffiness of the forest critters. Still, it was kind of cute and its antics were amusing as it roamed around the table. We all expressed our admiration for the pet and I wondered, “What is it, exactly?”

“Well there are seventeen subspecies of this particular mammalian approximation but it alone among the genus demonstrates an intrinsic hereditary magical trait-” Jennifer began excitedly and I was amazed at the level of education she displayed. Zach stared in shock with the mug half-way to his mouth.

“Jen, sweetie, you’re going full nerd mode again,” Amanda said not unkindly and as if she’d had to step in for her friend more than once.

Jennifer blushed and tried again, “It’s… a magical squirrel that can stealth.”

“How do you even train a magical squirrel?” I wondered with no small amount of curiosity. Thoughts of a stealthy little helper aiding me with my capers certainly appealed.

“It’s actually a skill called Animal Taming. You can tame pets for others or have a certain number yourself. Actually, my problem is that my skill capped so I need to get another skill point,” Jennifer explained enthusiastically.

Amanda cleared her throat before speaking to Zach and I, “Zach, Allen, I was wondering if you’d be interested in joining us. Jen needs one more quest to level up and I happened to get one from the Hunter’s Board that is just enough.”

It took all my awareness not to look confused at the fake name but when the proposal sunk in I wasn’t opposed to the idea. A good old-fashioned dungeon crawl might be just the ticket to remind me why I was here in the first place. Still, I wanted to develop a habit of caution after leaping into so much pain recently so I glanced at Zach first.

“Well, I’ve only been here for a day but I’m just about out of money. Turns out Dwarves can really hold their ale, probably not the best choice of race I could have chosen to go bar hopping,” Zach said then pulled deeply on his mug before resuming, “Though any chance of earning some more drinking money sounds good to me, is there pay in this quest?”

Amanda nodded and spoke up, “Yes, there is a reward. The Hunter’s Guild pays for various creature bounties and this one is to clear a mine that has been infested with spiders.”

Zach downed the rest of his mug and after a soft belch said, “Sounds good to me, I’m game.”

The other three looked over at me and I tried not to be too obvious about freaking out. Spiders were my biggest fear, they had too many legs, too many eyes, and if every one of them died in a fire I would buy a drink to celebrate the event. Still, I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of these new people so I pulled it together to respond, “Sure, let’s do it.”

It wasn’t long before the mugs were empty and we made our way out of the bar. I couldn’t remember finishing my beer because all I could think about were the giant fangs and shifty little legs that I just knew were waiting. A small part of me was wishing I could go back to armor training with Aaron.

Outside the inn, Amanda sent out invites to everyone in the group.

Notification: Group Invitation

You have been invited to join a group by Amanda.

Accept Invitation? Yes/No

Yes. As soon as I accepted the invite an awareness of the health and mana of every person in the party entered my mind. It was a surreal feeling having this information just implanted in my head and if it weren’t for my preoccupation with the spiders I would have been freaked out. More freaked out.

“The mine we need to clear is just to the west of the city. I’ll share the quest now,” Amanda said as she led us off down the street. I glanced at the Broker’s Guild with a certain longing but figured it wasn’t going anywhere and that I’d come back.

Quest Offer: Clearing the Mine

Your group leader has offered you a quest from the Hunter’s Guild job board. The task is to clear out a mine that has been overrun by Giant Spiders. Before fleeing for their lives, various miners reported sightings of a Spider Queen. Killing the spiders and their queen will fulfill the terms of the job contract. (Recommended party size: 3+)

Reward: 800 xp, 20g

Accept This Quest? Yes/No

Yes. I accepted before I could think too much about the actual size of something called a Giant Spider, let alone the Queen. I resolved to put my fears aside and just go with the flow. Adventures like these are why I signed up for this virtual world, and I really felt the urge to stab something after the day I’d had. Amanda seemed to know where she was going so I took in the sights of the city quietly as I followed her out of it.