Chapter 9 #3
“Hey, guys!” Sylvia calls out to us. “Can you rouse everyone so we can eat before this food gets cold?”
Cait responds with a nod.
As we head back to the tent, I notice Alexander gazing at the mountains in the distance. Shit. I was so excited about surviving that cercopes mission last night that I totally forgot to turn in the quest.
I tap Cait on the shoulder. “Hey, I gotta go talk to Alexander. Can you take care of waking everyone without me?”
Cait laughs. “I can handle shouting at everyone to wake up.”
We part, and I head over to Alexander. His eyes don’t leave the mountain range until I say, “Hello.”
“Hello, traveler,” he greets back.
Being called “traveler,” “adventurer,” and “wanderer” by every NPC I meet is getting old. I wonder if there’s a way to change that.
“Can you call me Lauren from now on?” I ask. “I mean, is that an option I can choose?”
He blinks at me like he doesn’t understand. That’s…strange. He’s an NPC. He should respond with something pre-generated, if he responds at all.
“Hello, Lauren,” he says after a pause.
Whoa! It worked.
“I got the cercopes to their mother.”
Alexander smiles. “Oh, she will be most pleased. Now that their mother has them contained, Zeus will not allow their deaths. Here is your reward, Lauren.”
The two silver and five copper ka-ching into my inventory and then he holds out something I didn’t expect because he hadn’t mentioned it when giving me the cercopes quest. It’s a cornflower blue cloak with a golden clasp. There’s a subtle sparkle to it, like it’s imbued with magic.
“This is a gift from Aphrodite,” he says. “It will offer protection from even the most bitter cold.”
“Cold?” I ask as I put on the cloak.
“Winter is coming,” he says.
I snort. “Okay there, Eddard Stark.”
Alexander, of course, doesn’t notice my little pop culture reference and continues his explanation. “And Aphrodite wishes for you to visit Khione the Snow Nymph to the North. You must bring her news of her child, Eumolpus.”
“That’s an oddly specific quest that sounds like it’s just for me,” I say. Surely, my party would have told me if the next quest was related to my deity.
“You must plead with Khione to claim her son, as he is returning to Thrace in a bid to become their king,” he says. “If she does not, he may die.”
“Why does Aphrodite care about any of this?” I ask, not expecting an answer.
“Because Poseidon is one of her lovers, and he is Eumolpus’s father.”
Twice now, Alexander has acted more autonomous than another NPC would. Given that this is such an Aphrodite-specific quest, I wonder if she’s using him as some kind of conduit. Why not give the quest to me directly in my menu, though?
“Okay, I’ll do that,” I say. “Are there any other quests I should know about?”
“Spiders have woven a tapestry above a village to the north called Sardis,” he says. “It is so thick that the villagers can no longer feel the sunshine. They need a hero to destroy the web and drive away the spiders. Make sure not to kill any of the creatures. We don’t want to make Arachne angry.”
He’s right there. The last thing I want to do is piss off a woman with eight legs and a grudge against the gods.
I return to my friends who are all happily eating the breakfast Sylvia made.
“So, did you get the spider quest?” Cait asks as I sit down to eat.
I nod. “And another one, too.”
Cait raises an eyebrow. “Another one?”
I scan the group. Their features scrunch with confusion.
“I think Aphrodite wants me to do a special one for her,” I say. “In Thrace.”
“Thrace!” Guy shouts. “It’s almost winter. It’s going to be so cold there.”
“That must be what the pretty cloak is for,” Tara says, pointing to Aphrodite’s gift in my arms. “Where’d you get that from?”
“Alexander gave it to me when he gave me the quest.”
Tara lifts a brow. “Must be nice to have a goddess giving you seasonal wear.”
“I can try to do this one alone,” I offer.
Sylvia shakes her head. “No, we work together as a group. That’s the only way to survive in this game. Besides, we’ve already done all the quests from level one to level thirty. It will be nice to do something new.”
“And maybe find clues about our offerings,” Joshua interjects.
“Guess we’ll need to do some shopping once we fix the spider issue,” Guy says.
I feel so guilty about how much I’m costing this group. “I’ve got some money. I—”
Guy puts his hand over mine. “Save your money. I’ve earned so much I don’t think I could ever run out.”
I notice a subtle blush on his cheeks, and I have a realization.
When I had gotten to know this group at the tavern, I’d received a quest to Inspire Lust. It must have been an Aphrodite-specific quest. It had no reward other than a tiny XP bump.
But I hadn’t even needed to try because as soon as I noticed it, it was complete. I hadn’t figured out who it could be.
With all that had happened since then, I’d almost forgotten about it entirely. Guy had been there, though, and he’d been more than generous ever since. Could a dude as hot as him have a crush on me?
No way, Lauren. Girls like you don’t get that lucky.