Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (38 page)

“
You
always stare at that scroll, as if there are secrets buried in the
ink somewhere.”

“
There
are.”

Peg
snorted. “Doubt there’s anything really useful there, all
I see are little squiggles for buildings. Any fool new to this town
would learn it easy enough, even those narrow-minded Travelers you
send here.”

“
Here,”
I pointed to an alley, “is an alley known for pickpockets and
thieves.” Next there was a location right outside of town,
north along the water’s edge.

“
Here
is a cave that is good for meditation if any one's willing to sit
inside it overnight.”

“
Here’s
where Henry lives, and he’s always willing to teach Travelers
how to make bricks in exchange for labor.” Finally I pointed to
the south, near the main road out of town. Henry sat along the edge
of town waiting for traders and long distance travelers who might
need his crafts.

“
There
are a lot of secrets in these maps, and I have to remember where they
are to help out the new Travelers.” After much testing, I found
out that certain NPCs could be spoken to easier than others. Our
balance of giving and taking must have met Carver's needs.

“
Mh.
I guess you’re right about that. Pretty sharp for an old man! I
hope I remember things half as well as you do when I get that old!”
She slapped me on the back with an overly excited grin. I watched my
health bar drop and groaned in extra pain.

“
Oh.
Sorry, Will! Are you alright?”

I
grunted and tried to shake it off. William Carver showed no woman any
weakness! According to his journals, the only weakness he showed was
while flirting his way into someone's bed. There was a count on his
table back at the cottage where I’d tried to see how many lady
friends he’d racked up over the decades. Once it got past two
dozens I parked him back inside the bath and the auto pilot program
took another wash.

With
a shudder, I managed to right myself and stand up.

“
I’ll
be okay, Peg. This isn’t the first time a pretty woman has hit
me.” She laughed like I’d said the funniest thing on
earth. I had no interest in being like William Carver with my time
here. Being with a woman other than my fiancée didn’t
interest me.

“
Alright,
I’ll clean up here. A little bird tells me you’ll be
recounting some tales for the young ones tonight, any truth to that?”

I
nodded.

“
Mylia
reminded me.”

“
Slipping
your mind eh? Need a woman to remind you?” Peg was bustling
about checking her weapons and making sure they were all in shape.
She kept a conversational distance for William carver's hard hearing.

“
Mylia’s
looking out for the kids.”

“
Sure
she is.”

I
grunted.

“
That’s
our hero for you! Even in his dotage he’s trying to add another
notch to the bedpost!” She started laughing even harder.

I
sighed, grumbled, groaned, and made my old man escape away from a
madly laughing Peg. Nothing about my view on the situation with Mylia
concluded with Carver caring one whit about getting into her
underpants or whatever people wore in a medieval setting. I doubted
it was a G-String or something made of lace. Not with the vaguely
emaciated look to her and the children’s faces.

Maybe
I should bring food too.

Carver,
the soft weird cookie personality, had often done little things to
help out villagers. The entire thing went against how I’d been
acting with new players. If I were to try and reconcile a giving
personality from his journals with the way he acted as a Guide, I’d
have a headache and oodles of confusion.

Baked
goods would do. I’d promised to pick up some for the
[Messenger's Pet]
on the way home but I could grab something
light and take it with me to the orphanage as well. Provided the
little dragon wouldn’t show up and eat everything on the way.

Cookies
would be perfect.

“
Cookies.”
I was nearly drooling while walking.

With
that glorious thought in mind, I marched onward, taking breaks as
needed, watching people pass by and returning greetings. Checking out
locations against my map to ensure I was both on track and becoming
more familiar with my surroundings.

Turned
out the city name was scrawled across the top of each map, which is
where I found it one night.
[Haven Valley]
was nearly
idealistic compared to the NPCs rumors of other cities. Guards talked
a lot about everything. Players would mention a need to gain skills,
ask me for directions to one faction’s headquarters, or the
other.

At
least their colors weren’t red and blue. That would be outright
cliche. Instead we had a green with some laurels thing, claiming to
be related to tree people and have ties in a huge valley over the
mountains to the south. Their kingdom was called
[Telliari]
.
Their uneasy alliance was with a kingdom to the north that was more a
coalition of city-states called
[The Altheme Providences]
.
Somewhere on either side was another set of regions along with
wilderness and a trade route that went off to the other side of the
continent.

I
filed the information away in a notebook I’d started keeping on
my ARC. Since there was so little online, keeping a journal I could
access outside the game or while traveling around at work seemed like
a good choice. Plus William Carver’s notes and belongings were
not mine to keep, just peruse while living his life.

Creating
a separate journal was actually Beth’s idea, not mine. I was
still keeping most of my actions under wraps, but she pestered me
constantly. Guess Uncle Grant couldn’t escape from her
boundless enthusiasm for much longer.

The
bakery had a walk-in stall set up. That was very neat. Old Man Carver
did not like doors at all.

“
Mister
C!”

Great.
Pie Master, who acted more like a young hip hop rapper gone pastry,
was manning the stall. I did what any old grumpy man who felt a need
to be nosy about new player's lives might do. Ignored the stupid name
and went on with my day.

“
I
need cookies.”

“
Cookies?
I don’t think we do cookies up in here.” Pie Master
actually looked appropriate in the chef's apron.

“
Ladette,
do we do cookies?”

“
No,
what’s a cookie?” A voice yelled from the back side of
the stall. Making out the females face was difficult with Carver's
vision.

“
You’re
killing me! You don’t know what cookies are?” Pie Master
stopped his cleaning and started towards the building's rear.

“
No,
explain it to me!”

I
watched a pop-up box form in front of the player. He didn’t
know I could see them, or he might have disguised his glee. There was
a look of extreme amusement on his face and a hint of greed.

“
Wait…”
He paused and squinted at me. “How do you know about cookies?”

I
fluttered around a bit inside my head. Luckily Carver's exterior
didn’t betray one ounce of the panic I’d been stricken
with.

“
One
of you Traveler types talked to me about them. I wanted to bring
something for the kids during my visit.” My progress bar took a
hit for providing an answer without compensation.

“
Oh!
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. How many do you need?”

My
eyes drifted downwards while trying to figure out how many items a
squad of children might eat. Too many if left alone.

“
A
few dozen.”

“
Tell
you what, I’ll see what we can do, maybe thirty minutes? That
sound good?” I chewed a lip and tried to remember how much time
there was until sundown. Thirty minutes shouldn’t be too bad.

“
Sure.
I’ll need some cupcakes too.”

Pie
Master shook his head. “This place. They got cupcakes, but no
cookies. It’s criminal.” He placed a few of the small
baked goods onto the counter and waited for me to pull out some
change. My stiff fingers managed the action slowly.

“
I
wonder if I could get a patent...”

Ignoring
Pie Master's money grasping muttering was difficult. Eventually, I
broke away and made it to a bench. One of the two cupcakes went
slowly into my mouth, a squished bit at a time. The other one I sat
next to me, where the
[Messenger's Pet]
would likely show up
in moments. He’d been promised the treat on the way home. How
the tiny creature kept finding me was beyond my understanding.

Sure
enough, moments later he was chewing away. A dead Coo-Coo Rill had
been deposited nearby and a huffing human male was running up behind
the small dragon.

“
How.
What.” More exaggerated panting. His stamina bar was probably
completely run out. “So fast. He’s so fast.”

“
Yep,”
I muttered around the last crumbs of my cupcake.

The
[Messenger's Pet]
was nearly purring in his kind of squeaky
tone. I’d seen depictions of tiny creatures like him before on
the cover of old fantasy books though his legs were a bit more lion
like.

“
How.
Did you train. It?” More out of breath huffing issued forth. I
was quickly losing my cupcake happiness.

“
I
didn’t.”

“
Is
it. A pet?” Awesome Jr. fell to the ground and kept right on
panting.

“
Sort
of.” I had no such problems. Maybe a small ache in my shoulder.

“
This
game. Is awesome.”

“
No.
Awesome is your father,” I said while avoiding any inflection.

“
Hah.
Ha ha.” He actually was laughing. Not in fake amusement or
something placating, but real mirth. Okay. I was proud of my lame
joke as well, but Old Man Carver wouldn’t let anyone know!
Especially not some wet behind the ears newbie.

“
How
did your mission go?”

“
Terrible.
I got so lost. There are too many houses. Rows and rows of houses.
They all look different too!” Awesome Jr. finally had enough
strength back to sit up. Both arms wrapped around his knees.

“
Ah.
Learning a new world takes time. Did the map help?”

“
A
little. I found some of the people you marked and asked them how the
other Travelers were doing. They gave me notes.” Awesome Jr.
fished out a pile of papers from one pocket and shoved them in my
direction.