VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 50: Where is it?!
When Belladonna entered the armour smith, the Hellion running the shop literally leapt over the counter and nearly tackled her in his excitement. His hands clamped on her shoulders, before he quickly started to search her in a very unprofessional manner.
"Where is it? I heard the rumours! I’ve been waiting for you to come here, so where is it?! You do have it, don’t you? Gods, please don’t tell me you sold it to someone already!"
She shoved him back, giving him a glare that was mixed with concern and disgust. He was being a little too intense over a simple pelt, but considering the price of the meat that had to be a big part of it.
Not only would it be expensive and great for him to sell, but now that she had a little more magic knowledge, Belladonna was aware of just how valuable the different body parts could be. Just the pelt would be wonderful for creating enchanted armour, or acting as a base for other enchantments as it would naturally be able to hold more magic.
Bones could be sold as components for spells or added to armour for extra resistance and enchantment material, or even turned into charms. Bone charms were apparently quite popular amongst certain types of spell casters, such as those focusing on the more macabre aspects such as Necromancy.
So his excitement was understandable, but how handsy he was getting was still far too much. Eventually she managed to calm him down, presenting him with the object of his manic devotion.
But while he was over the moon with just the Ardent Behemoth’s pelt, he nearly wet his pants with excitement when she produced the Barghest pelt and chain from her Bottomless Bag - which is what she had decided to call her new bag.
After much negotiation, mostly because she was trying to keep him calm and pry the real price out of him, they eventually came to a deal. He would use the materials present to make her a new set of armour, since her currently equipped one was still torn to shreds, and in change she would sell the excess to him for use.
She also made sure to sell the items she had been ’donated’ by the idiot that had argued with her in the Butchers shop. She had stripped that fool bare and dumped his naked corpse outside for him to collect before she had done anything else in that shop.
With all of her trading and what she had been ’donated’ from the corpses coin purse, she ended up making a grand total of 22 Regil and 47 Solis. That was after the cost of her new armour was deducted, and she even looted a new knife from the idiot!
This turned out to be an incredibly profitable day.
The only issue was she had to wait a day for the father son duo to finish her armour. So, considering the greed and hatred filled vultures that were currently circling here, Belladonna decided now was a good time to log out, take care of some real life things before coming back.
Plus, it seemed she actually needed to do some research on this game since she was missing some very basic information, such as what the ’Trail of the Gatekeeper’ was all about.
The towns Inn wasn’t too far away, only far enough that she had a mere three more eager people come ’donate’ their equipment to her, but what surprised her was how empty it was when she actually arrived.
She had thought that this Inn would be the prime spot for logging off, and that the rooms would be nearly full. But most of the rooms occupied were by NPC’s with only one or two filled by actual players.
What Belladonna didn’t know, was that the players saw the Inn as a ’Noob Trap’. It was a public area with windows one could spy through, showing when the player logged out and left their body defenceless. It became easy to break in and rob those that were inactive in the Inn.
It was mainly this way because none of them had ever learned about the Brownies, or if the beta testers had then it was kept between them. Instead, most players would run into the forest and find somewhere to hide their body before they logged out.
But Belladonna had no idea of any of that, nor was she under the impression that hiding was the best course of action. So when she strolled into the empty inn, causing some of her would be thieves to laugh eagerly to themselves, she was completely at ease.
"Excuse me," She said with a friendly tone to the woman she assumed to be the Innkeeper, "How much is a room for the night? Also, do you have a kitchen I can use or any food that I can purchase?"
The Woman gave her a curious once over, and Belladonna couldn’t help but notice the brief flash of pity in her eyes before she assumed her professional demeanour.
"Well now, not often the Graceless come here. Rooms are One Solis for a night, including breakfast. If you pay for five nights, I’ll give you them for four Solis. But mind this doesn’t include dinners, just breakfast and if you’re late for that, it’s not my fault.
Why are you wanting to use the kitchen?"
"Oh well... I got used to cooking for the Brownies, so I wanted to make them something before I slept. But if I can’t I’ll buy something instead."
She took a slab of meat from her Bottomless Bag. It wasn’t magic meat, just something she had received from the Butcher as thanks for her generosity, but it was still a sizeable chunk of fresh meat.
"Tell you what," The Innkeeper said with a lick of her lips as she stared at the still dripping meat,
"Cook me a portion of that, and I’ll let you use my kitchen whenever you want Hun. Besides, it’s nice to see a Graceless that pays attention to the Brownies."
Belladonna smiled warmly, wrapping the meat back up so it didn’t get ruined by the air, before a question tickled the back of her mind. Glancing at the Innkeeper tentatively, she asked softly,
"This might seem like a stupid question but... Why is it that you call us Graceless?"
