Chapter 3: Ch 3: NPC?

It was early morning when Adrian woke up from his bed, as usual. He sat on the edge of his bed, turning his head to a lonely table at one corner of his small makeshift room. On top of the table, rested a sandclock with 12 divisions on it, each indicating the interval of one hour. He silently watched as the last sand grains drained from the fifth hour. It was six in the morning. This Tempus sandclock was a masterpiece among several other designs. It indicated all the twenty four hours of the day. The sand grains of the last, that is, the twelfth hour would slip through the microhole at the interface of the upper and lower body, then the lower cone under some unseen force would suddenly jerk sideways and bring the upper body to the lower side while it itself would move up to the upper side...and the sand grains would proceed to fall again. He then gazed out of his window that overlooked a busy street and saw people hustling around, shopkeepers opening their shops and occasionally the birds chirped; the sun rose slowly and so did the city. He stood up and slid a long curtain-- this was kind of the door of his room. His bedroom opened straight into his own shop, where all around one could only see weapons, armours and shields-- all tidied up and kept properly according to their categories. He didn’t own this shop but rather the titular government of the Evenstar Kingdom did...to be more precise, they owned the entire newly made city of Trios. All the now citizens of Trios happened to be present at a nearby village when they encountered the recruiters sent to the village under the royal decree. They had recruited the people without even giving them a choice. And unfortunately, Adrian happened to be present among them. Wrong place, wrong time. In reality though, Adrian was a nomad who lived by himself and roamed from place to place. And having wandered continuously for many months, the thought of finally settling somewhere, even if it’s for a short period of time brought him some kind of solace. Having his own house--not technically his-- this was something he haven’t had for a long time. Thus, he didn’t show much reluctance in coming here. ’I still need to run away anyway’ He thought inwardly before brushing his teeth, then cleaned himself at the public bath few blocks away from his shop. ’So i need to sell these weapons according to the price rate they gave me, sigh...what a headache’ He remarked while glossing his eyes all over the small, cramped space that was his shop. He then closed the smooth wooden door behind him, which still had that stinky smell of brown paint on it, and then turned away to walk towards the city centre. It has been a burning topic among the people of Trios over the last week. The arrival of the ’Saviours’ had all of them on their feet, as they all scurried away to their works, methodically double checking for any errors. Finding none, they eventually joined the growing crowd that walked towards the slender, tall tower at the centre of the city, which looked as if it would pierce the sky if given the chance. Coiled around this ivory tower was an elongated serpent, whose scales parted at regular intervals, giving it a bulging appearance. It’s body seemed to dive towards the ground . The serpent didn’t have a head, seemingly cut off at the neck. The tail however seemed to flick it’s way towards the east. Adrain however knew better. ’A corpse of an Eastern dragon, preserved for eternity if left undisturbed. I wonder how they would react seeing one of their own kind being dangled like this in a show of utter humiliation.’ At the base of the tower lay a lifted stage that surrounded the entire perimeter of the tower. The ivory colour contrasted with the dark and seemingly gloomy atmosphere of the city which served only to make the tower stand out more in the people’s eyes. After what felt like an eternity, the severed head of the dragon...umm the giant serpent for the people, emitted several glowing particles of various colours, it looked like a messed up rainbow to Adrian. The particles seperated at a clear distance from each other and made a proper formation. It really looked as if an army had assembled. The particles became brighter and more brighter until it started expanding and enveloped the entire landscape in a moment of stunning brightness. Everyone instinctively covered their eyes. After the brightness faded away and the people could open their eyes, they saw them ...the Saviours! People of all age groups were now standing on the lifted platform, looking curiously around and at them. Adrian’s eyes darted from one figure to another. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t in awe at the way they have arrived. Not to say, so many beautiful...ahem, ’they are so good mm hmm.’ Though he lost interest very soon and walked towards his shop aka house. He was disappointed to say the least. Here he was hoping for something he heard only in folklores, but all he saw were mere humans, who looked even weaker than him. ’No, no, don’t underestimate them, Adrian.’ He clapped the sides of his forehead, then shook his head and kept on walking. He knew better than anyone how underestimating anyone, even if they looked weak and useless, could be the worst move. He then returned to his shop, removed his cloak and sank into his chair. He soon drifted off to sleep. Not before muttering under his breath, "Nothing beats a lazy afternoon sleep...ahh" _____________ Adrian jostled awake when he thought he heard someone tapping his work desk. Opening his eyes, he saw a slender girl of around 17 years old, the same age as him, looking at him with such intensity that he felt more like an interesting specimen rather than a normal human. He was flustered by this attention, while swiping the drool from the corners of his mouth. ’I must have been sleeping with my mouth open, I can’t even sleep peacefully!’ ’Wait! I was drooling and she saw it...ugh’ Though outwardly, he flashed a rather sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head. Then taking a deep breath, he calmed himself and cleared his throat before greeting her. "Hello Lady Saviour, welcome to the humble store of ’Blacksmith’. How may I,Leonard, be of help to you?" "Umm can you probably tell me more about this place...and do you have any quest available?" The girl inquired of him, all the while scrutinizing his face. Adrain felt quite awkward under her gaze. In his desperation, he quickly looked away from her, and started explaining her the geography of this world. "This is the city of Trios. It has been recently formed, not even a whole month actually." "Even i have arrived here 10 days ago. If you follow north, you shall..." He then pointed his finger and added,"You shall reach the Great Canopy, though I wouldn’t recommend such a dangerous place for exploration. On top of that, the wilderness in those forests is immensely powerful." He then went on to explain the more prominent places in the kingdom, however beneath all, he kept on glancing at her face from time to time. "...so this is all about the Evenstar Kingdom. Well if you are curious about the other kingdoms, I would suggest going to the government offices. They are the ones in charge of giving you permits for going to the other countries. I am not much aware of these procedures since I never had to go anywhere too far away." ’Well, I simply cross borders. So I really don’t know about these travelling rules and all.’ " I see...well, thank you for your time,sir" The girl bowed and then left his shop. Adrian’s eyes were fixed on the door from where she just left. As he was lost in thoughts, the door opened again and this time two boys, who looked younger than him, entered. "Whoa, look there! a blacksmith NPC!" One of them exclaimed. "NPC?" Adrian’s eyebrows perked up at the strange name with which he was addressed. Out of curiosity, he asked them, "Umm what is this...NPC?" The two of them flinched at his words, as if they weren’t expecting him to talk. They looked at him and one of them exclaimed, "The AI is quite well made. These characters are quite interactive, man. I wonder if I can finally mingle here." The boy grinned stupidly while his friend guffawed loudly. Adrian stood calmly and watched all of this happen. ’AI? What the heck is that? And did he actually say ...mingle? He meant ’that’?’ ’I should let them know beforehand that i don’t swing that way.’ But before he could say anything, the other boy cut in and answered his question,"You see, NPC is the game character. Like you are a NPC. Understand?" His friend looked at him blankly and said to him, "Why are you even saying that to him? Are we creating the Homunculus Problem here?!" Adrian’s eyes gleamed for a moment. ’I think I get it...so, they are stuck in a deep manipulative pit themselves,aren’t they?’ A few moments later, the boys started exploring his ’shop’ and even showed interest in few of the items. The two boys left the shop in quite a good mood, while Adrian smugly looked at the coins stacked in front of him--- this was his first successful business transaction afterall and he couldn’t help but think ’Scamming people isn’t that bad...’