Chapter 4: Chapter 3: Ulmsville

Moving around with magic thruster is quite fun. I would love to say that it’s like flying, but it’s more like jumping around since it’s an impulse. It would have been impossible for George to do it with any meaningful control, but luckily Zena is good at it. In the game I used to fly across the map by spamming it. Since the damage model in the game was tied to the physics engine, I died quite a lot until I managed to convince the developers to create a method to avoid it. The result was the fall damage reduction tattoo. The way it works is by stopping you before you hit something and it has already triggered a few times while traveling, though less frequently as I get used to it. It also happens to be the fastest way to stop.

I proceeded through the forest periodically swapping between thrusting and calmly walking in the warm sun. Whenever my thoughts would spiral too much, I would start to increase my pace, occasionally distracting myself by weaving between some of the trees next to the path.

A while later, the sun stood a fair bit lower in the sky and the forest abruptly stopped and gave way to some wavy planes. The mountains to the right had receded to the distance and up ahead was a town. Looks like it has a couple thousand inhabitants and is one of the many “filler” towns the developers put in the game over the years to increase the world size. No real walls or other means to stop intruders, only a bit of farmland and an orchard surrounding it. 

I slow down before approaching the town in the hope of not attracting too much attention and mentally prepare myself to meet the NPCs of the world. Are they as passive as they were in the game, or more natural like on earth? In the game, you literally had to punch some of them to get their attention. Yes, they patched that bug fairly early on, but it lives on in my memories. Still, dialogue with random “filler” NPC was not really a thing and they all had a slightly browner palette than the ones you could interact with. The ones with quests would always have at least one piece of clothing with a strong color on it.

As I enter the town, a few people turn to look at me, but seem to lose interest fairly quickly. The houses are nothing special, just variations of “generic medieval house”. In the game there were a limited number of models used for houses in “filler” towns like this, but now all the houses seem to at least have some variation. Entering the market, the smell makes me realize that I have not eaten all day, so I check my inventory for anything edible, of which there is almost nothing. I mean pretty much all food is a low level healing item in the game, and as a high level player, I have only potent potions. I did not think that being a high level player would leave me hungry. Well I have four of the ten apples that all new characters start with, but I have had those for eight years and have kinda grown attached to them, so I would rather eat something else.

Feeling my stomach complain, I look for someone selling food and find none. Maybe I should wait until I get to the inn, they probably serve dinner around this time. Well, I guess it’s time to ask for directions, I hope they are like the people of earth and not the mute NPCs of the game. I wave down one of the townsfolk that’s carrying a sack and they respond like a human would.

“Hi, I was looking for the galavanting hare. Could you point me in the right direction?”

“Yeah, that would be over yonder. If you follow that road over there and take the third left, you should see a building with a large sign.” He gesticulates with his free hand whilst giving me directions.

“Thank you.”

“No problems. Happy to help you youngins.”  He waves as he walks onwards towards his goal. It’s been a good while since anyone called me young, but then again Zena is still quite young. Following his directions I find the inn David mentioned. Him saying it had the best beds makes sense, since it probably is the only inn in the town. Entering I find a dining hall with only a few people quietly eating and am immediately greeted by a large woman with red curly hair.

“Welcome to the galavanting hare, sweetie. How can I help you?”

“Hi. Honestly I am quite hungry and need a place to sleep tonight.”

You are reading story princess Zena of Zendor at novel35.com

“Well, then you came to the right place. Just take a seat and I’ll bring a meal and a room key.”

With that she walks off to gather the things and I take a seat at one of the empty tables. After only a minute the woman comes back with a bowl of soup, some bread and an almost comically large key.

“Here’s the food and the key to the best room. Any preferences for drinks? I have Ale, mead and some juice.”

“I’ll take the mead, But why the best room?”

“Honey, you look rich. Of course I’ll give you the best room.” walking behind the counter whilst speaking, she takes out a wooden cup and fills it with the drink.

“That’ll be a silver for the food and three more for the room, assuming you only stay for one night.”

“That sounds about right” I say, not really knowing what it should cost. I take the requested coins out of my inventory and they appear in my hand so that I can hand it over. She almost looks surprised, but remains calm. I have to know what had her surprised, so I ask her

“Was it the amount of money or the fact that they appeared that surprised you?”

“Honestly, the fact that you didn’t even try to haggle. I mean inventory magic is hard, but not that rare. Combined with the fact you are dressed like a mage kinda made it a non surprise. And sure, in the grand scheme of things four silvers aren’t much, but I would have hesitated before paying that much.”

With that out of the way I waved her off. The gesture felt a bit rude to George, but to Zena it felt natural. Either way the soup was pretty good, no chunks of meat, but they must have used beef stock to make it. The bread was not as hard as it looked and tasted great with the soup. The mead was harder than expected, making me slightly dizzy by the time the cup was empty. I wave her down and get a refill and continue just sitting there and reflecting on the rest of the day, but before I go too deep in thought, I decide to look through my inventory for something to distract me. It’s mostly clothes, we didn’t call it dress up simulator 3000 for no reason, and with a character as old as mine, I have most of the different sets. Though I’m not looking for that currently, so I look through the vanity section. In the game, vanity items are items that don’t serve any in-game function. An example would be the mirror I used earlier, though there is a limit on how long a mirror can distract me. Actually, never mind, I take out the mirror again and have it hover on the other side of the small round table, before looking for something else as well.

After a good while of alternating between looking at my reflection whilst sipping mead and focusing on my overly full inventory, I am distracted by someone entering the inn. Turning around as fast as my dizzy head allows me to see a huge almost naked man with bright orange hair before I fall out of my chair, landing softly on the floor.