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1.1.3: Patched an exploit where players could ring the quest bell for infinite quests

  Eyes on the prize, Shelby told herself with a nod, finish the tutorial and find the other players.

  She opened her menu and located her quest tracker, which still read:

  She fastened her quiver and slipped the short bow over her other shoulder. Carefully, in case he was sleeping, she lifted AIDAN and stowed him into one of the cloak's deep inner pockets. His usual pyrotechnics display was missing, and he had been silent since she woke up. As she walked out of her room and back down the hall to the entryway, she ran into the front desk mouse. Nisa-something. The mouse gave a weak smile. Most of the mice Shelby had seen around were short, and this one was shorter than her by about a head. The mouse walked backwards a few steps, balancing a precarious stack of folded white sheets in her hands, and let Shelby by.

  She spoke in a half-interested tone as Shelby bowed slightly and hurried past, "You sure slept a long time. Straight through dinner. Hungry?"

  Shelby was hungry, but she didn't know if that was her game stomach or her real stomach or both. Her virtual stomach grumbled loudly. She admitted to her condition, "Famished."

  The mouse jerked her head in the direction of the small common space near the front desk, "Kitchen is closed, but I'll bring you something simple in two shakes of a whisker."

  Shelby headed onwards to the now-empty seating area. There were a variety of worn and well-used pieces of furniture grouped around clusters of two or three chairs. Every seat looked like it came from a different century. She chose to lean against a particularly tall barstool with spiderwebbing cracks all throughout the soft leather of its seat. The inn mouse came back through a minute later with a tiny plate that barely contained a dome of dark bread, which was crusted with sliced wheat berries, and two small glass jars sealed with red wax paper. She pointed to them in turn, "Carrot bread. Veggie oil spread. Squash jam."

  Shelby took the plate and gave her an excited smile, "Thanks, I've never had carrot bread before. Or squash jam."

  The little mouse barked out a laugh so loud that the plate rattled against the jars, or maybe that was Shelby jolting in surprise. The mouse wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, "Good one. That's all I have right now. I'd give you some fresh fruit, but… you know how it is. Hard to come by lately. Swing back by in the morning and I'll give you the works, okay?"

  Shelby laughed nervously, "Okay. The whole enchilada."

  The mouse agreed, "The whole enchilada," and walked off without another word. Did they have fantasy enchiladas in this world? Shelby wondered, and what a funny little character.

  Shelby watched the inn mouse slowly clean and carry linens around the inn as she tore off a chunk of bread. It felt like she was passing through someone else's life, gazing in from the outside. If she followed that mouse around, would she keep doing chores forever? Go running errands? Or did she stop existing when Shelby wasn't around?

  She took a big bite out of the bread. I was chewy and flavorful. She didn't know if it was because she was currently a rabbit, but she had never been so happy to taste carrots before. She peeled back the jam jar's lid and dunked her bread in it. It was slightly sweet, buttery, and perfectly smooth. Yum! I didn’t expect the food to be so good.

  Shelby fished AIDAN out of her pocket and balanced him on the slightly sagging lid of the unopened oil spread jar, and tapped him, "Morning AIDAN. Are you alright in there?"

  His core flickered to life, and he responded with a what felt like deliberate moodiness, "Hello Shelby, I am functional."

  "Feeling okay?" she pressed.

  "I am not feeling anything," he clearly lied, "I see that you have rested and eaten. Are you ready to resume your tutorial?"

  She nodded as she ate another ragged chunk of jammy bread, "Mmhmm," she swallowed, "is there a way I can, you know, put this food somewhere for later?"

  "Yes, Shelby, simply think 'store' while focusing on the item. You can retrieve the item later by thinking 'inventory' and selecting what you wish to retrieve."

  "Great, and it'll stay fresh in there?"

  "Correct."

  She held the bread up and stared at it until it popped out of existence. Then she tapped the jam, sending it away, and picked up AIDAN with her other hand before storing the oil spread too.

  She opened her inventory and a grid of mostly empty boxes unfolded in front of her. There was a little image of the bread, completely intact without any hunks ripped out of it, and the jam and spread, with their lids back in place. The bread had a small white "8" at the lower right-hand corner, the jam had a "4" and the spread "5". She concentrated on the bread, and she could feel a few commands that she could choose from. She thought 'inspect'.

  That was surprisingly thorough. She bounced AIDAN in her palm, "It says I got a bonus from eating that bread. How do I see it?"

  "You may view buffs and other bonuses either by checking your character panel or by inspecting your health and mana bars. Buffs typically appear as icons above your health. Concentrating on your status will make the bars visible."

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "Thanks AIDAN, something to check on our way over to the tutorial."

  As she walked out of the inn, she concentrated on her status and a gently curved red bar and a slightly smaller blue bar appeared on the lower left side of her view. Red is health and blue is magic, probably? Pressing on the red bar mentally revealed that it was indeed her health and that she currently had 32 health points. From the blue bar she gleaned that she had a meager 10 points of magic. She didn't know any magic spells, or even any skills, so that wasn't a problem for now. Above and to the right of the curved bars were a handful of small icons, including a tiny loaf of bread and a miniscule jam jar. She looked them over as she trotted along the mostly empty streets. It was close to dusk now and the sky was giving off a subtle royal purple glow. Most of the windows and doorframes around her were lit from within by lamplights and candles.

  The two food icons read:

  Oh, it adds up. She asked AIDAN about the jam bonus, "What is 'Primary'?"

  "Base classes utilize a primary attribute for most of their attacks, skills, spells, and maneuvers. You are currently playing a class with the Scapegrace base class, which uses Finesse as its primary attribute."

  "Finesse… so I'm the smooth type huh?"

  AIDAN didn't respond. He usually loved to banter with her. She was going to have to find an orb therapist or something at this rate.

  The next highlighted area was a bit further west than the training field, and it looked like it surrounded someone's free standing house. As she approached, she saw that it was a small shack that was surrounded by a huge variety of clay pots, some of which were empty, others with fantastical plants overflowing from them, and a few that were shattered to pieces and scattered around the weed choked yard. Shelby quickly scanned the piles of terra cotta for an arrow and was happy when she didn't find one.

  A spindly table sat in front of the shack's door and held a small bell and a note that read:

  'Ring bell for training.'

  Shelby reached out and shook the small bell violently. It sounded like someone was driving a lawn mower through a mound of broken glass.

  A light flickered to life inside the shack and the door swung inward with a crash, knocking a thin layer of dust off the roof and door jamb. A short beaver fellow with an impressive mustache and horrible posture waddled outside with a hoarse shout of, "Jumping jackrabbits! What? What is it?"

  Shelby put the bell back down, "I was told to come here for a tutorial."

  "And you show up in the middle of the blasted night. bah!"

  Shelby could still see the last traces of sunlight through the brambles to the west, but okay, fair enough, "I could come back later."

  The beaver harumphed, "No, no, you woke me up already, get with the asking." He folded his arms and tapped his foot on the packed earth.

  Asking? Shelby brought up her quest log and then sidestepped a few feet around the table until she was inside the glowing rectangle on the map.

  Oh, that was neat. She sized up the grumpy man, "Do you really have quests for all these pots?"

  He glared at her, "Of course I do. I'm the master of giving quests, aren’t I?"

  "What about the bell and the table and the card?" Shelby pressed.

  "Child's play." He replied with a snort.

  Huh. Did they create a bunch of different quests for this tutorial or was he just making them up on the spot? She looked around at the pots for something that looked unique. She could imagine that the big vase-like pots could be something like "go fetch me water" or "fill that with rice" and the broken ones might be a "find all the pieces of that one" type of request. What would he ask for if she pointed to the things on the table, though?

  "Okay, how can I help you with the bell?" She decided.

  He gestured towards it with a lazy wave, "Clappers no good anymore. It isn't supposed to make your skin crawl when you ring it. Take it over to the Carillop guild and they'll fix it up."

  Shelby felt like she walked into that one, "What if someone needs training while I have your bell?"

  He nodded over his shoulder, "Plenty more bells in me shack, don't you worry."

  Curses. Played like a bell by the master... The quest log updated:

  Shelby reached out and stored the bell in her inventory, "Should I go do this and come back for the other one?"

  "Nah, pick em’ both. I get the feeling you're the meandering type and I don't want to be waiting up all night. You won't have to bother me again afterwards, if all goes well."

  So grumpy. She read over her tutorial again. It said to try objects to prompt quests, but it didn't say the quests had to be from the objects. Would he just refuse to give out quests if they weren't about the objects?

  Shelby looked him over, "What about you? Are you happy being the quest master?"

  "Sure I am. Pleased as bees."

  "You don't get tired of sending people out with the same bells over and over?"

  "Nah, bells is a good one. Always gets the ones who think they're smarter than a stubbed toe." He chuckled to himself.

  "What if I brought you some new stuff? Then you could think up some new quests."

  He seemed to consider that, "New quests, y'say? Been a bit since I got a new pot. Might be nice to flex the old gourd," he looked around his hard as he rapped his knuckles against the side of his head.

  "You could even do something that wasn't a pot or a bell," Shelby suggested.

  He looked puzzled, "Not a pot or a bell? Then what?"

  "I dunno! Lots of things aren't pots or bells."

  He slapped his leathery tail against the ground, momentarily standing up straight and puffing out his chest, "Alright, I'll allow it. Bring back a peculiar thing or three and I'll whip up some fine quests."

  The master added, "And just leave them on the table. I was having a nice dream before you disturbed my slumber. Go. Shoo."

  Shelby still couldn't tell if this was a pre-planned quest or not.

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