32 The first quest of the Neerdy Trio

, I have arrived.\" I sent a message to Marco and Wolf as I was crossing the stone bridge.

, Excellent.\" Wolf exclaimed.

, Where are you exactly?\" asked Marco.

, I am crossing the bridge.\"

, We are waiting for you at the Big gate.\" Marco said.

, I will be there shortly.\" I responded and looked at the town in front of me. Name Little Fort was certainly an appropriate one. Little Fort town was made in a very easily defended place, hence the fort in the name. The town was literally inlayed into the mountain on one part. Other sides of the town, north, south, and east were well guarded. The big gate which was mentioned by Marco earlier was looking to the east, turned towards the river. North and south gates were smaller and were made to connect mountainous path which merchants used for their travels. According to Marco and Wolf, you could pass one of those gates, enter the town, exit through the other gate and continue on your way. I wanted to explore the town myself but we didn't have time to lose. Other players are also arriving at the town quickly as they can.

Now I could already see the town in front of me. Stone walls were all around it. Part of it was made from the mountain itself. The big gate was almost 10 meters wide and on both sides were two big stone towers. I could see archers on them looking on guard. On the walls, there were also guards moving left and right. In front of the big gate stood two figures. They were both wearing leather armor, one had a bow over his shoulder and two quivers of arrows on his belt. The other one had a big battleax behind his back, which looked like it could slice even stone in half. Of course, those figures were Marco and Wolf.

I stopped in front of them and we looked at each other. We couldn't contain our excitement so we laughed like lunatics and hugged each other. We can finally play together.

, Champion you made us wait.\" said Wolf with a big smile.

, Ten slivers.\" said Marco trying to be as straightfaced as possible. I followed his act and begrudgingly took 10 silvers from my leather pouch. I moved my hand so slowly that Wolf couldn't contain his laughter anymore. He started laughing again and so did I after handing Marco the coins. He also managed to keep straight face until he put the coins into his pouch. All the guards looked at us like we are some idiots that were laughing to who knows what at the town gate.

After we had our fill of laughing we all put our game faces on.

, Are we ready?\" I asked them.

, We are all ready. Are you good to go? Do you need something from the town?\" asked Wolf.

, I am ready. We can move now.\"

, Excellent, follow me.\" said Marco and entered through the gate into the town.

We moved through the Little Fort town and I used this time to look around and familiarize a little. We will be here for some time so knowing the place will benefit in the long run. The town is divided into four parts. The Central District which is next to the mountain. Resident District which is placed at the south part of the town. The Trading district is in the north part. And Adventurers District is placed on the east side where the Big Gate is.

Central District was the smallest but it was the most important part of the town. In it, there were two big temples carved into the mountain one by the other. One is dedicated to the Ruler of Gods, God of Thunder and Lightning, Perun, and the other to the Sun God, Horz. To be more specific it is dedicated to his blacksmith persona. The mountains around the town are full of ores and a lot of blacksmiths settled in this town, bringing their faith in Horz with them. Some other buildings were Elder Assembly, a big wooden old building where elders of the town got together to talk about town matters. There were also Guild Asociation building and Mercenary Hall. Those buildings were for establishing Guilds and mercenary bands and taking quests.

Resident District was the biggest of all as it housed all the townsfolk. Marco and Wolf said that the biggest crowd happens in the morning when all the townsfolk go to their jobs and businesses.

The Trading district was full of smithies as the town protector was Horz. According to Wolf who took blacksmithing class, almost every fifth shop in the Trading District was a smithy. Other shops were tailor shops, butcher shops, bakeries, and vegetable and fruit shops. In some secluded places, there were few herbalist shops and even one alchemist shop was there. Almost everything one needed for daily life could be found in the Trading District.

Adventurers District was full with taverns where players could sleep and find a meal for a day. There were also Warriors Abode and Hunters Cottage. This is where Wolf and Marco did they class change quest. Where are buildings for other classes? Are there other classes at all in the game aside this two, someone would ask. Well since I am a Druid there are certainly more classes. Where are they and how to find them will be on other players. Three of us don't have that kind of a problem anymore. In this part of the town was also Guard House. Guard House was not far from the Big gate, and if any disputes happen guards will arrive quickly. Where is the prison for offenders? I do not want to now that.

We were moving through the Resident District. Small children were playing around while their mothers were watching after them. Seeing the number of children made me realize how much bigger the town is, in comparison to the beginner village.

We exited the town from the south gate and started moving southeast.

, Where are we going?\" I asked them.

, We have a quest.\" said Wolf.

, Quest? What kind of quest?\" I asked back.

, Pest control.\" said Marco and shared a quest with me.

\" Pest control

Help the townsfolk of the Little Fort to clear their fields of pests.

Bring 20 rat tails as proof.

Repeatable quest

Reward 1000 EXP and 1 Little Fort reputation point.\"

I looked at the quest and couldn't believe it. I thought that when I made it to the town we were going to hunt some monsters or bandits, but rats?

, Guys are you serious?\" I thought that they are joking. Wolf laughed helplessly and Marco gave me an explanation.

, We are serious. While Wolf was getting his class, I was running around the town to find as many quests as possible. Do you know how many I found? Only one, Pest control. I managed to find one town elder who gave me this quest. It is repeatable and shareable so you two didn't need to find him.\"

, Other players are going to get a good surprise as well.\" laughed Wolf.

, That means that only this one quest is available for now. since more players will arrive by tomorrow we must kill as many rats as we can today and find another quest. Otherwise, we will not be swarmed with rats but with other players.\" I said.

, You are right, said Marco, lets hurry.\"

With that in mind, we hurried along the road. I remembered my first quest at beginner village about farming in the fields. Do game developers have some weird obsession with farming? Is that why they made the first quest in both beginner village and town about farming fields.

While we were going to the fields we familiarized with the skills we each have. Of course, as soon as two of them heard I can shapeshift into a Stag they neglected healing and rooting skills and demanded that I show them. What could I do? They are my best friends after all. When I transformed both of them looked in amazement. Wolf was looking at me from all sides. When he came behind me and wanted to look between hind legs I kicked out at him and immediately canceled my transformation. He was moved only a couple of steps and didn't receive any damage.

, Come on Champion, why are you like that. I only wanted to check if something was there.\"

, Are you out of your mind. Even I didn't look there. I don't want to get scared for life. And knowing you everybody at the neighborhood would talk about it tomorrow.\"

Everybody knows that Wolf is weak against his mother. Whatever she asked him he would speak the truth. And he tells her everything. Even what happens in the game, as I heard from Marco. His mom is the scariest mother in the neighborhood. She raised four boys, so no surprise there.

Marco was standing there and laughing. Then he said.

, Forget about that Wolf, let's go. And remember. While we are in the game lets address each other by our character names.\"

, Roger that, Eagle Eye.\" said Wolf and saluted. Now I couldn't contain my laughter. You just can't get angry at this guy.

I also found out their skills. Like I did, they also learned three skills. It seems that three skills are the starting point for every player after changing classes. Not that you couldn't learn other skills before that. My herbalist skills and others are a good example.

The skills they learned were Steady Shot, Ensnare, and Tame for Eagle Eye and Charge, Slam and Onslaught for SuperWolf. Steady Shot deals a fixed amount of damage when one is not moving. Ensnare can stop opponent for a set duration of time but can't stop them attacking. And Tame was signature Hunter skill for taming pets. The Charge is for arriving at the opponent's position quickly stunning them in place. Slam hits an opponent for an increased amount of weapons damage. And Onslaught increases attack damage with each successive attack. But the effect quickly stops if Warrior is not actively attacking.

Like I learned two skills before becoming a Druid two of them also learned two skills. For Eagle Eye, his first skill was the same as mine Nature's Call. It makes sense since Hunters also spend most of their time in natural environments hunting wild animals. His second skill is Tracking. It helps him to track beast, monsters, and NPCs if necessary.

SuperWolfs two skills were Weapon Training and Battle Rage. Weapon Training gives him an increase in speed with weapons he trained with. And Battle Rage has a chance to send Warriors in battle rage for every enemy hit they receive. It is a small chance but effect is very good with increased damage they can do.

We quickly arrived at the fields. Even though Little Fort's focus is on mining and blacksmithing, having their own source of food is equally important. The fields were of course even bigger than the ones at the beginner village.

We started our job as soon as we arrived. For all three of us to clear the quest even once we needed to catch 60 rats. Until the next level, I needed a little less than 9000 EXP which means that I had to catch 180 rats. I guess that Eagle Eye and SuperWolf are at the same number more or less. So we had to catch somewhere around 550 rats by the end of the day.

Are there even that many rats here? We looked at each other and could only try. Eagle Eye and I used our enhanced perception to try and find some rats. We managed to find less than 10 rats in our surroundings and quickly finished them off. By the lunchtime, we walked through the fields and found enough rats for three of us to clear quest three times. After we ate some provisions Eagle Eye prepared before we left the town, our progress slowed down. In the next three hours, we found 20 rats in total. We were wondering if we had to return tomorrow. But SuperWolfs annoyed and angry Slam hit the ground near our resting spot and opened a little hole. What we then encountered could only be described as earning experience in bulk. A swarm of rats exited the hole and almost buried us under them. Thank the Gods we were in the open fields and not in some uneven ground where you can trip and fall in to get swarmed by rats.

But to be honest it was a great annoyance to kill those rats. We finally killed the last rat an hour before the sunset. Since we had killed so many rats Eagle Eye skinned them all. We could sell their skin if they are valuable or Eagle Eye could use them to practice his tailoring. Since we didn't have any reserve bags to put the skins and tails into, SuperWolf ran to the town to see if he can find some. Eagle Eye continued with skinning and I tried to find some herbs and find some animal to observe aside from rats. SuperWolf got back with three big bags just to be sure and we went back to the town.