Legendary Rule Read online

  The boar followed up with a slash at the same leg with its tusks. It was a fully offensive maneuver and left it wide open to the next swing to the back of its head. Ajax dropped it with two quick strikes. Power Attack was feeling smoother and less forced by the game each time he used it.

  “They can charge too. They need at least 10 yards to charge though.” MissyQ was paying attention to him as she fought. “Did I see you use an ability there?”

  “Yeah, I have learned power attack.” Ajax was more than happy to swap tips with her.

  They started swapping tips as they cleared up the rest of the boars, and by the end of it Ajax couldn’t wipe the grin off his face.

  CHAPTER 8

  Turning in the quest had given Ajax 200exp and 50 copper. Killing the boars was worth more by itself; his inventory full of tusks could probably sell for more. He had seen MissyQ trying to use a tusk like a weapon earlier, not sure how well that worked. Farmer Henry and his wife, bluntly tagged , were no more help. They didn’t have any more quests. All they could provide were some looped interactions and general directions to the nearby areas. Ajax opened his menu to see his stats. The early levels went quickly, and he had 15 unspent stat points to spend, but he wasn’t sure where he was going with his character yet.

  Name: Ajax

  Level: 4

  Exp: 80/800

  Health: 102/120

  Energy: 100/100

  Mana: 0/100

  Strength: 12

  Agility: 12

  Fortitude: 11

  Stamina: 12

  Wisdom: 10

  Intelligence: 10

  Charisma: 10

  Ajax opened up his friends list and opened a line with AzureSky. “Have you finished your boars at the farm AzureSky?”

  She didn’t take any time to respond and Ajax couldn’t help but smile. “Just call me Sky. I thought I was fast. You finished already didn’t you? I still have 6 more.”

  “Slow poke” Ajax hoped it came through jokingly. “I didn’t have anymore quests at my farm. Trying to figure out what to do next. I’ll check the forums while you finish your quest.”

  “Oh are we working together now?” She replied. He couldn’t decide if her voice seemed happy at the arrangement or was he kidding himself.

  “Isn’t that what friends do? Hush I’m reading.”

  Ajax couldn’t keep the cocky grin off his face while he brought up the forums and started looking through them.

  “Why are you so smiley? There are no more boars and no more quests.” Missy Q stood behind the screen he was viewing the forums on. He could see she was slightly posing for him, her soft white mounds cresting out of the cut of her tunic.

  “Reading the forums.” Ajax did his best not to look at her and keep his head focused; she was gorgeous but also out of his league. He took a peek, pretending to look at the screens only visible to him. Damn, a guy can dream can’t he? But he needed to focus if he was going to make any money on this game.

  Ajax scanned the general forums and it wasn’t hard to find. Almost all of the posts were people asking what to do after their farm quests. Scanning through it looked like some people had found quests back in town. Others had headed out into the wilderness to farm exp. No one however had any real details.

  Sky finished her boars about the same time Ajax finished with the forums. “Looks like we can either try our luck back in town or venture out to farm monsters. I think it’s worth a trip back in town to drop off the loot from the boars and maybe pick up a few necessities. If we find a quest great, if not we get out and farm some exp. No one is really sure about dungeons yet, so we’ll have to share monster spawns with anyone until then.

  “Sounds like a plan. Invite me, and I’ll meet you back in town I need to find a weapon.”

  Ajax was about to head out when MissyQ came up to him “Mind if I tag along? Not much left here for us. I was waiting for some boars to respawn, but I’m not seeing anything. I’m starting to see how this game is supposed to be different. Like a real world.” Ajax wasn’t sure why MissyQ wanted to join him, but from her expression it wasn’t just a casual interest.

  Was Ajax really going to turn down a beautiful companion for his trip back to town? “Sure, what do you mean like a real world?” He summoned the friend window and sent party invites out to the two girls.

  “Some whispers have been going around. With the beta testers wrapped up in legal agreements not to say anything, they’ve been vague and careful about it. But, they say the game uses the new gen AI, and it’s like a real world. Things you do affect the world. Like if someone killed Farmer Henry, you wouldn’t be able to turn in the quest, ever.”

  “So they don’t respawn? What would happen to the farm?” Ajax thought that would be excessive. Imagine all of the NPCs dying constantly; there had to be some method of increasing the population.

  “No I don’t think they’d respawn. The farm would either fall into disuse or his neighbor might buy his plot. Like a real world.” Missy was curling a lock of her hair absently peeking at him out of the corner of her eye.

  Ajax tried not to react to the attention as they walked, but damn MissyQ was staring at him and he could feel her hunger.

  Turning out of the drive from farmer Henry’s lot, Ajax found they were walking now instead of running down the country road. There were still people running about, but without a specific quest right now, everything didn’t seem so urgent and Ajax was taking in the game. Or rather the new world if what Missy said was true. He looked over to take her in. he couldn’t believe he was walking with her down a road like they were on a date. He looked at her hand, thinking of the possibility if they touched. She must of felt the gaze, because she turned and looked.

  Ajax flushed she must have thought he was looking at her ass.

  She didn’t seem upset. If anything, she seemed interested in keeping up the conversation, and Ajax wanted to keep her around. She was obviously a gaming veteran, and Sky seemed pretty good too. If Ajax could keep them together the three of them could speed through the starter quests.

  “If monsters don’t respawn, won’t we run out eventually? I mean we’d run out of farms with boars for new players soon, right?” Ajax wasn’t sure how a game could function with respawns.

  “Without an influx from somewhere you are right. Just because they don’t respawn in the same field doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to create new monsters.” Missy said.

  Ajax thought about that for a moment, if monsters breed in this game they’d refill, but it would be far too slow. “You don’t mean monster reproduction. You mean like an event?”

  Missy gave him a sly smile. “No, they will respawn.”

  Ajax was confused now; she was contradicting herself. “You lost me.”

  Her smile widened holding back a laugh and Ajax wanted nothing more than to keep a smile on her face. She was stunningly beautiful. “No, they respawn, but they don’t just respawn. If they are trying to make this feel like a real world, they aren’t going to have monsters materializing in front of players. If I had to guess they will respawn in some fashion when there aren’t players around.” She paused thinking “Or they will respawn in the woods and wander over to restock the farms.”

  Ajax paused a moment till Missy turned “Then should we head back and do another sweep of the farm?”

  “I don’t think that will do much good; it could be a waste of time. We don’t know how fast they will respawn.” Missy said “Even if they did, they are level ones. This early in the game, we’d be better off finding some monsters a few levels above us to farm. Early levels are always forgiving. We should take advantage of that.”

  Ajax nodded at that comment. She was a professional gamer; leave it to her to think through all of this. Though in fairness, she’d probably given the game as a whole quite a bit of thought before logging in. Ajax had really only realized he was going to be playing the game a few days ago. “Sounds like you have a plan. what’s the go
al when we get back to town?”

  “I thought I’d stick with you. I mean, group leveling has some bonuses to incentives it. Totally the best way to level.” Missy spoke quickly explaining her first sentence.

  Ajax was happy though. A good group was always hard to find in games. “I’d be happy to stay grouped with you. I got another friend who we’ll meet in town. I think the three of us can blow through the early game content.” Ajax nodded to himself; this was going well.

  He continued on. “We need to get far away from the beginners area ASAP. The sheer mass of players will slow everything down.”

  Missy agreed with him before shooting him a shy look. “We could always rush out into the woods and go camping.”

  Ajax hadn’t realized that the town was so close. He could already see the gates they left to head towards the farm. They offered a great distraction from the thought of going camping with two beautiful girls in the woods. “Well lets not waste time then.” Picking up the speed, Ajax hurried towards the town.

  They got into town quickly.

  Up ahead he saw a familiar head of blue hair in the crowd. Sky was waiting at the first intersection of town, now with a bow hanging over her shoulder. She didn’t turn till Ajax was closer, and her face lit up seeing him. She raised a hand to waive but froze hand still in the air as she caught sight of Missy. Missy stopped talking, and there was a moment of palpable tension in the air with Ajax caught in the middle.

  The silence hung in the air for a moment “Ahem, Hi Sky, this is Missy. We both had the same farm for the last quest.” Ajax turned to Missy at his side “This is Sky. She and I met when we started the game. I promised to quest with her after the farm.” Ajax scratched the back of his head unsure of what to do next. Both girls let some of the tension out of their shoulders, relaxing a bit knowing that they had both just met Ajax. “So let’s sell the vendor the loot we got from the boars.” Ajax took the lead and let the two girls figure out how they were going to walk as a group.

  Ajax stopped into the blacksmith again. This time he was talking to who he assumed was the blacksmith’s wife, the girls flanking him one on each side.

  “Hi there, I’m here to sell these.” Ajax opened his magic bag that hung on his waist. It came with 16 slots, but he was told you could add charms to it increasing the size in the deceptively small bag.

  Pulling impossibly large items out what looked like a coin purse just big enough to fit his fist in, he piled up his loot from the boars. “How much can I get for these materials?” He asked with a hopeful smile.

  However, the blacksmith’s wife had a fading smile and she started scratching her palm on the edge of the table, probably a nervous gesture. “I’ll pay you three silver for all the tusks, and… um a silver for the… hide..s?” Ajax looked at the tattered scraps that he had created attempting to skin one of the boars. It was a lot harder than waiting a few seconds for a casting bar. He had also used a boar’s tusk… maybe he should get a knife while he’s here.

  “Umm yeah, could I ask how much a knife and an axe are?” Ajax looked at the rest of the ‘goods’ he had put out; the raw meat might leave a stain on the counter. Ajax started taking the items back into the bottomless hole attached to his hip.

  The woman appeared to appreciate him putting away his other goods. “You might find an inn willing to buy the meat. I can give you a hunting knife for a silver. A lumber jack’s axe would be four silver if you have a silver to add.” Ajax frowned. He didn’t have enough even if he sold back the wooden club at the price he bought it, which was unlikely.

  Sky cleared her throat from his left and slid a silver into the pile. “Things were selling a bit better when I came into town. If I had to guess, prices are dropping as more people are coming back with the same loot from the farms.”

  Ajax frowned at the silver. He shook his head; he knew it was being friendly, but he had his own standards. “No that’s fine” sliding the silver back to Sky. “I’ll just do without the hunting knife then. Can I get the axe?” She looked a bit hurt at the gesture. He’d have to explain later.

  Missy did her exchange too and the group walked out. She had exchanged her loot for a two handed sword; it looked smaller than Ajax expected. He blamed all those games with weapons that practically dwarfed the players holding them. This game seemed to have more realism, at least right now. Who knew what the game would be like if you had 200 strength? They sold their raw meat for some dried rations and began strolling the town for quests.

  CHAPTER 9

  Coming out of the inn, the group saw a large caravan of carts roll by, each decorated with a purple cloth with white borders. It seemed they might be part of some trading organization.

  Ajax jumped forward and began chatting up some of the NPCs walking alongside the caravan but they were brief and clearly weren’t going to offer a quest. Giving up on the caravan, the group split up searching down the streets looking for NPCs that might have information. They each took a side of the street and started talking to NPCs. Each NPC kept either offering basic information or telling them to shoo if they weren’t buying anything from their stalls.

  Ajax came up to a young man who was trying to pry up a few cobblestones.

  “Hey, you got a quest?” Ajax opened the conversation bluntly.

  “Go Away.” He finished prying up the stone, and Ajax could see it was cracked. The young paver pulled out a new stone and replaced the cracked stone. He watched the boys face and actions. It kind of reminded him of himself doing a shitty job day in and day out to survive. At that moment the young paver seemed so real. went to begin prying a new stone but seemed to be struggling with this one. Without thinking, Ajax walked over like he would a customer having difficulties getting something off a rack at work.

  “Let me help you with that one.” Ajax hit it with the butt of his club and managed to knock it free. The boy wedged a new stone in the spot just as if he’d loosened it himself.

  Ajax looked at his log and saw he had gotten twenty experience for repairing the road.

  Ajax changed tactics. “How about I help you replace a few stones?”

  The paver looked up at Ajax and gave him a shit-eating grin, “Sure here’s a dozen stones knock yourself out” He said holding out his hands. Ajax replaced a few more and continued to gain experience for each stone he replaced. The boy offered him another handful of stones.

  They had been doing it wrong. “Ah, I’ll be back to help another day.” He declined the additional stones that the young paver held out for him and started running after the caravan that they had seen earlier.

  Ajax opened his party chat “We forgot that they wanted this to be real; they won’t just give us quests. We have to do this like more like helping someone or asking for a job in real life. I’m going after the caravan to see if we can’t get an escort quest from them and get out of this town.”

  Ajax saw the purple covered carts ahead and ran up to “Hey, we are adventures looking to travel the same direction. Do you need a few more hands guarding the caravan?” The Guard Captain gave Ajax a once over with a disdainful look at his clothes.

  “You don’t look like much, I’ll only pay you 10silver and 200exp a day. The journey to Tyren will take a week.”

  “I’ve got two more coming with me, are they good for the same deal?” Ajax was trying to keep his breath steady even though he was on the very of jumping up and down like an excited child.

  “Sure, same deal for two more.”

  A notification that he’d shared a quest came across his vision. Speaking into the party chat he asked “Did you guys get the quest? Let's get ready to head out.” Ajax was walking slowly with the Caravan waiting for the two to catch up.

  Ajax could see Missy’s bright pink hair as she made her way back over to him through the crowd. A strange sense of excitement welled up within him as she broke through the crowd. He tensed for a moment in expectation but wasn’t disappointed as she broke out in a brilliant smile
upon seeing him.

  She dove over and gave him a hug, Ajax’s heart was beating fast as she pressed her soft mounds into him. Ajax wasn’t sure why he and Missy had suddenly connected on such a level, but he wasn’t going to complain. The beautiful pink-haired woman pressed her face into his neck, and he kissed the top of her head. He hadn’t even realized he had done it till he was breathing in her scent just after.

  Ajax flushed embarrassed and waited for a reaction from her, but it went completely against his expectations for her to nestle in tighter and mumble something against his neck before planting a soft kiss. Ajax was baffled but held her closer as he looked up to see if anyone was paying attention.

  The crowd of players continued to swarm around the city without a pause to look at the two hugging pair. Ajax didn’t see Sky’s blue hair stick out from the crowd so he was content to continue to hold Missy tightly.