Chapter seven - open seseme`

The game developers of had boasted reality life like reactions of NPCs. The NPCs were varied and all had long history which could affect how they interacted with the heaven blessed, that is, the players.

The way the village chief behaved in Artha's village was the perfect example.

Would a simple, bumbling village chief would be like that? We can expostulate even further. Why would the village chief even issue tasks and such things? Just near the village centre, there were more than ten NPC shops. Go deeper, number of NPCs increased. Why would a respected village chief would waste time handing out tasks or quests?

Tasks were closed loop versions. Kill these many mosters, gather these many items, clear this portion of the map. Quests on other had only had beginning part. The end entirely depended on the player. Rescue the village boy. Will you just rescue him? Will you kill the bandits around the boy to rescue him? Will you destroy whole gang of bandits and then rescue the boy? How will the other side react to your approach? Will they gang together and try to kill you? Will they get afraid and run away? Will they call for even stronger reinforcement? Will you get ambushed while you were coming into village with the boy?No one knows what happens.

So tasks had fixed rewards but quests were rewarded based on the efforts you put. Right now, every NPC was handing out only tasks but that would change later. The gaming forum had come to blow because of difference of opinion on what was considered quest and a task, thus the gaming company had come forward with the above example to explain them.

So, the primary question here is why would a big boss like a village chief, typically the strongest person in the village, would hand out basic tasks and as such?

Being a Nitpicker and a busybody, Artha got some clues while chatting with other NPCs. There was sort of competition between various villages on how to manage the heaven blessed. The top ten and top hundred villages would get a bonus. This was the reason why these natives, aka, NPCs tolerated these noisy and stupid heaven blessed.

And this was the bargaining point Artha would use to get his way.

"Sir, I know your gracious self is full of benovelence for us heaven blessed people. You should be knowing why I need that room too. If I open my resource chest in middle of village, I shudder to think how other heaven blessed people would behave and how big the repercussions would be. So for the safety of the heaven blessed and the Villagers, I kindly request you to agree to this arrangement. I can swear a contract that I would pay in cash or kind for these ten days rent before end of the day. You should know that I have capacity to pay that much too. Kindly consider."

There. Blackmail. Threat. Backing off reason. All prettily tied up and presented. Unless the village chief turned out the be an eccentric, he would accept it graciously.

The beauty knew it too. She scolded Artha under her breath, 'Damned Nitpicker!!!' The simple and bumbling, love seeking guard watched Artha warily. This was above his pay scale.

After lots of give and take, the village chief decided to accepted his loss graciously. Artha could rent a common room in the hotel for ten days. In retilation, his tasks got upgraded but rewards remained the same.

Win some. Lose some.

All this talk had wasted lots of time. The queue behind him had grown even longer. But getting a place was a necessity for him. The precise reason was his weapon. The standard newbie noob package included 30 small or bronze coins, 5 small red and blue potions, a trash common weapon of his class, 10 apples and a jug with ten glasses of water. Also, enough raw materials to try forging, portioning once.

The trash common equipment was already present when he entered the game- a signet top, loose pants , pair of sandals. These were same for any class of jobs. There were no other equipment or accessories.

He needed weapon to kill the monsters. Monsters would give XP needed for leveling and also the drops or loot, which could be collected for the tasks.

As to why he didn't dare to equip himself with the default mage staff, well .... Based on the reaction of the creation fairy Ava, his talent would enhance all the rewards from the game side in multiples.

Just imagine! He opens his newbie chest and out comes some five to ten or even hundreds of trash level staff or even a better grade staff. He would be butchered inspite of being within the village.

His chest would have few to hundreds of potions or even silver alloy coins. It's a sin of a poor to hold on to jade. Or something similar.....

He showed the contract scroll to the proprietor Vinzo in the hotel and took the key for his temporary abode.

When he opened the chest....