NOVEL NEXT The Goldshire Expedition
4/23 morning
I woke up aching worse than when I’d gone to bed. I gave self healing another go, reasoning that I’d be pretty useless if I couldn’t walk without wincing. The light apparently thought that was a pure enough reason, because it allowed me to instantly exhaust myself to make some of the hurting stop. I pulled on my other shirt and pants and checked my inventory for a new necklace. It was a relatively simple one. A loop of leather strung through dozens of small green beads.
I went to breakfast in my dusty travel clothes. The simple porridge didn’t taste any better on repeat exposure, but it was filling. I already wanted out of this place, but it was safe and it was giving me skills I really needed. I sat and chatted with Auffrey, as was becoming normal. She was curious about my home, which I needed to dodge; I’m pretty sure she was only talking to me because she thought I was a fellow noble in exile.
“It’s just hard to think about, you know? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to that house on the shore. If I do, it’ll either be burnt down or occupied by corpses.” I shuddered and looked out a window nearby, doubling down on being sheltered. It didn’t exactly make me sound cool, but it did mean I could deflect all kinds of things. When I tried to offer her a necklace, I was a bit surprised to meet resistance.
“No, of course not. Those are all your remaining assets are they not? It would be better for you to sell them to properly equip yourself. Simply giving them away is foolishness, Erich.” It made sense. I needed to explain away the jewelry, but now she thought I was some sheltered idiot who didn’t know how money works. Oops.
Well at least she was giving me good advice. Somehow the idea of selling my jewelry didn’t even occur to me until now. They were there to give me power over people. But they were also just really nice necklaces made with precious stones. The wheels started turning in my head. If I could sell the necklace, I could buy some food. If I bought several silver worth of food and got it to the right gang of defias thugs, I could get my first minor mission out of the way. I started wondering if I should just cycle through them and hope for easy ones, but honestly a part of me wanted to be the nice guy feeding the hungry outlaws just to see what happened.
Today was a Saturday, and apparently we had leave to go to Goldshire with the supply wagon if we finished our chores and had any interest. I’d been planning on going to the library, but this just seemed like too big an opportunity to pass up. After cleaning quite a few dishes I got on the supply wagon with several other trainees, not including Auffrey. On the ride I checked my app for new missions.
Blackrock and Roll
Reward: Bashor Captured + 1 credit
Bonus: luxury goods: tempest jewelry may now change forms between a neck and wrist mounted shape.
Ugh. I wondered if I’d be penalized if I just didn’t engage with this one at all? Probably. The rewards seemed alright. If I remember right, the orcs in Redridge were elite mobs, so he was probably a powerful guy. Every credit would add up eventually. The bonus would probably be useful at some point, if I got it. At least it was relatively close compared to Tanaris. If I can get up to the point where I would be anything but a liability on an assault mission in the next two weeks, I almost have to at least try.
The trip was bumpy and crowded. We went out through a checkpoint at the mouth of Northshire Valley, and the guards waved us through. It took two and a half hours by cart, but we were moving slowly enough that I was pretty sure I could jog it faster if I wanted to go back early.
I walked up to a guard and asked if he knew any merchants who might want to buy jewelry. Best to be direct, right? Apparently there was a traveling merchant by the name of Remy Two Times from Redridge. Worth a shot; he sounded a bit sketchy, but I just needed some quick cash.
He wasn’t too hard to find. He was wearing blue and had a large backpack. When he noticed me looking at him he put on a greasy smile. “Hey there, friend, names Remy. You looking to buy something, or looking to sell… to sell?”
“Yeah, do you think you could find a buyer for this? I held up the string of small emeralds and willed them to light up. He didn’t do a great job of hiding his surprise. I don’t actually know what the market value for something like this was, but guessed it was quite a lot. “I’m thinking a gold piece should cover it? I’m hoping to buy some food, too.”
His eyes narrowed. My communication talent let me know I’d low balled it, and he was suspicious. “I’ll just need to take a look at that. I don’t deal with stolen goods… stolen goods.” He muttered the last two words while he looked the necklace over. He didn’t see any red flags, apparently, as he handed it back without a word. “Best I can do is fifty silver. If you want better than that you’ll need to go to Stormwind. It’s in good condition, but a bunch of moss agates aren’t worth that much.”
“It generates light. That’s got to push it up to at least ninety?” I was actually happy with 50, given that I got it for free, but he already suspected me of being some kind of thief.
“Basic enchantment like that? Even if it doesn’t fade in a few months it’s basically just a reusable candle. I’ll give you sixty five, not a copper more. Not a copper more.” I grumbled for a bit after that, but took the silver and put it into my bag. This could be useful. It will be out of my control for a while, so hopefully I don’t hit the cap and then just have it floating around. On the other hand, if he actually found a buyer any time soon , then someone would be wearing it before long and I’d have captured someone at the cost of being paid sixty five silver pieces. Probably someone with money, at that; it was unlikely he’d sell for the same price he bought it. I went to the inn with a hopeful feeling.
With 65 silver burning a hole in my pocket, I asked the inkeeper, a balding man by the name of Farley, if he could help me get enough food to feed a group. “My friend is going on a long trip soon, and I wanted to see if I could pack them some food for it. They will be gone for a few months and don’t know how often they will be able to resupply.”
“Well, it sounds like you’ll want food that’ll keep, then. I have some cheeses that should last another month or two. I also have a few pumpkins and melons from the Stonefield farm. Wanna throw in some wine too?” He seemed eager to show me his goods. Maybe business wasn’t doing well with all the gnolls and bandits running around. I don’t know how many adventurers existed in this version of the world, but had a creeping suspicion it wasn’t many.
The cheeses, mostly sold with their rinds intact, varied in cost from a few dozen coppers to 20 silver for a large wheel of aged cheddar. The fruit was cheaper, I could get a whole watermelon for 5 silver, and I could get a whole pile of jerky for 1 silver piece. I forked over 30 silver on the cheaper cheese, fruit, and jerky. It was probably overkill for what I had in mind, to be honest, but filling up my inventory with cheap food seemed like a good idea if it would never go bad. Now all I needed to do was figure out how to get it all to the right defias thug.
On my way out of town, I picked up a new set of travel clothes and proper leather boots from a local leatherworker. It cost me 8 silver and 25 copper, but after that I still had a pretty good fund. My read out on my inventory told me 25 silver and 182 copper. I was rich enough to get by for a long while. I was done in Goldshire and it was only about noon, so I threw most of my possessions into my inventory, now about half full, and started walking.
I’d never been much of a runner in my old life, but this is exactly what athletic talent was for. It actually felt great. I tried to run faster but got a mental note that would wear me out well before I got to the abbey. With regret, I slowed my pace to one that felt natural to this new body and maintained it.
I didn’t have to put much thought into jogging, so I let my mind wander. Did I have any concrete goals? I intended to capture beautiful women, of course, and I wanted to get stronger. But was there anything I could start working towards now? Getting myself into position in Redridge was a good one. But maybe I could aim higher? If this was classic era, then currently Stormwind was being ruled by a black dragon in disguise. Onyxia, in her disguise as Lady Katrana Prestor, was very hot. She was also an extremely powerful mage, and highly connected. Of course she would also probably kill me without a second thought if she figured out I had any kind of plans for her. High risk, high reward. I’d keep it in mind but I’m definitely not up to the task of taking her on. If she were paranoid and powerful enough to even get an idea of what my necklaces did, she’d enslave me to try to reproduce them, if she didn’t just decide to kill me to be safe.
In general, maybe I should just avoid her for now. But if she doesn’t get herself killed by Varian or “the heroes of Azeroth” first, I could turn one of the smartest villains in Azeroth into a huge asset. Until then, chasing missions would probably be the best strategy. I’m not sure if there’s any other women close at hand who would be as useful. I started going through them in my head.
Jaina, Tyrande, and Sylvanas would be high value targets of course. Ysera and Alexstrasza were a bit more approachable as well as more valuable than Onyxia, but I have no idea where they are at this point. Inquisitor Whitemane? It was at this point I realized I was considering them less for their usefulness and more for how much I wanted to fuck them. I embraced it and passed the rest of my run that way. If I saw an opportunity to capture High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque I’d take it, but three foot tall guys with Einstein hair were not my type and I wanted to enjoy the life I had here while it lasted.
I passed through the checkpoint without trouble. Keeping in mind the fact that this was all just a game, I used my necklace’s disguise function to slim myself down, change my face, and make myself look a bit more ragged, switched into my dirtiest clothes, and went into the woods vaguely in the direction of the Northshire Vineyard. Time to join the Defias for an evening.
(Art by NovelAi https://imgur.com/a/1kjImeo)