Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Last night, everyone shared their side quest experiences.
Joshua made one hundred copper coins busking and helped a bunch of travelers find their way to important areas of town.
Sylvia trained some women in archery. Cait got a side quest busting pickpockets, which made Tara sweat a little until Cait promised she would let her off the hook.
That was good for Tara because her side quest was to get two hundred copper coins from pickpocketing and turn it in to the leader of Thebe’s Thieves Guild.
Guy was the only one who hadn’t done a side quest yet because he was busy with me.
When I updated them, I left out the part about the future escort quest I’d unfortunately stumbled into. I’d tell them all later, when it was too late for anyone to talk me out of it. However, Dolius was expecting me to come back to him with details about the trip.
I’m thinking about this as we sit around the campfire to eat breakfast. If I choose my words carefully, I can figure out enough to tell Dolius. Probably.
“I think after tomorrow, I’ll be ready to head out of town,” I say. “What about you?”
Tara responds with a shrug. “I’m good whenever y’all are. Now that I know there’s a side quest to bust pickpockets, I’m gonna stick around camp.”
Cait sighs. “I told you we’d let you off the hook,” she says. “Besides, I finished that quest.”
“Yeah, tell that to the newbies who probably have the same quest,” Tara says.
“I’d like to stay longer,” Sylvia says. “I think Lauren’s onto something about missing hints by skipping out on side quests. Besides, I’ve made friends here, and they want to learn more about leveling up as archers.”
“That should only take today and tomorrow, right?” I ask.
“Why the rush?” Joshua asks. “I’m still having fun here.”
Guy answers for me. “We were talking to a merchant yesterday, and he said if we don’t head north right now, we won’t make it to Thrace before the first hard freeze of the year.”
“Yikes!” Tara exclaims. “Maybe we should leave now. Lauren can always come back and finish her other side quests.”
“No!” I shout.
Everyone looks at me with stunned expressions.
I clear my throat and continue, “Look, the NPCs are breaking their programming here, and these quests might not be available when we get back.”
Joshua nods. “Yeah, I’ve seen the signs, too. Yesterday, I told an NPC she had nice tits, and she actually responded.”
“Did she smack you?” Cait asks.
“No, she just called me gross,” Joshua answers.
“Shame,” Cait mutters. “That might have taught you a lesson.”
“Well, we bought enough winter gear to travel, at least,” Sylvia says. “Though I still wish I could spend more time with the archers here.”
“There’s still that empusa to take care of,” Joshua reminds everyone. “It might be worth staying a few more days to grab some XP before fighting it. I’m so close to leveling up. I can feel it.”
I shake my head frantically.
Tara taps her chin. She’s always been the one to see right through me, and I can tell I’m not fooling her. “There’s something you’re not telling us, Lauren.”
They all study me. The weight of their stares threatens to flatten me. I really wish I was better at withholding information.
“It’s just that one of my side quests changed a little,” I explain.
“I was supposed to convince Dolius to believe in love, but now I’m supposed to hook him up with this other merchant…
” I take a deep breath and let the rest of my words tumble out of my mouth at record speed. “By escorting them to the next town.”
Cait groans. “You took an escort mission?!”
“I have to!” I say.
“It’s just a side quest!” Cait insists.
“No, it isn’t,” I respond. “Aphrodite told me—”
“That’s what they all say!” Cait shouts. “It’s how they convince you to get sidetracked from the main quest line, but you’ll see in your menu that it’s labeled as a side quest. We’ve all gotten them, and we’ve all skipped them.”
Cait’s glaring at me, and I’m glaring right back.
“Maybe that’s why you still haven’t figured out what your offering should be,” I say, unable to keep my anger out of my tone.
“Maybe your gods were trying to be as obvious as possible.” I get to my feet and straighten my chiton.
“Well, I have a busy day ahead of me,” I tell everyone.
“I’ll let Dolius know I’m leaving the morning after tomorrow.
Whether you come with me is up to you. I don’t care if I have to go alone to keep him safe and help him find true love. ”
“Fine!” Cait calls out and gets up herself. “If you’re going to be so bullheaded about it, I’ll help you with your side quest. I’m not letting you get eaten up by monsters or something. But we’re working on the rest of these side quests together.”
That last statement came out of fucking nowhere. Does she think I’m incapable of getting these done?
“Why?” I ask.
“Because apparently, when you do it on your own, you accidentally wind up with more side quests,” Cait answers. “I’m going to keep you on track, so we don’t have to travel through a blizzard or something. Where are we going today?”
“Um…the temple.”
Cait marches toward town and calls back to me, “Hurry! I want to complete whatever this quest is as soon as possible.”