HIATUS

Aildrin remembered receiving a barrel of mead. "How do I access my inventory?" he thought.

He willed the image of the barrel in his mind, and a storage room with a wooden floor appeared on his screen. There were no shelves. The container and the other things he had collected were just on the corner.

Aildrin reached for the barrel with his mind, and then it appeared in front of him with a thud. It had a red label on its polished surface with a dwarf's head as a logo.

The old man's eyes shined. "Ohhh! Hornpub's Mead! White and foamy! Where did you get this? This is a priced possession by the dwarves of Quagmire City!"

Aildrin placed a hand on the barrel when the old man tried to touch it. "It won't come for free. I need answers to my questions."

The old man smiled. "Ohhh, questions. The young adventurer has questions. But I shall only answer one, make it count."

"What? That's no fair! This is a barrel of mead, a supply that would last for a week."