“Welcome. The Magistrate is expecting you. Please go in.”

  Melia stood behind Alastair, fidgeting with her clothes. She hated to admit it, but the [Sultana’s Favor] set was actually very comfortable. She didn’t know if it drew more stares than her [Reverie], but she’d grown used to that. Seeing as how she was introduced yesterday as a [Dancer], she felt she needed to at least look the part. Entering a meeting with what was essentially the local lord with her team was like stepping into an interview with a big company, and Melia always heard it was important to dress to impress.

  Somebody was impressed; that was certain. Alastair led them to the reception desk inside the main foyer of the mansion and Melia felt multiple pairs of eyes stick to her as she walked inside. Thankfully, nothing came of it. Alastair presented his guild token to the receptionist, explaining that their party was invited to visit the Magistrate before she got busy with the day’s tasks. They were swiftly processed and ushered into a lavish office.

  ?

  It certainly fit the aesthetic of a dwarven woman ruling a human town.

  Something to understand about the dwarves was that, while they were shorter than humans, they were generally not much smaller. Broader shoulders, wider frames, stockier builds; they had a certain heft to them. You couldn’t just…toss a dwarf, not like you could pick up a halfling or step over a gnome. Not only physically, but dwarves held themselves much more prominently. They told grand tales, they built gigantic fortresses and monoliths out of stone. They hunted big game. Very little about the dwarves was small.

  So it was little surprise to [Sunrise] as they entered the Magistrate’s office to find it furnished with human-sized armchairs and a large mahogany desk. A fireplace took up nearly a third of one of the walls, easily twice the size of those found in the common rooms of cheap inns, and the gargantuan head of a gigantic boar hung as a trophy over the mantle. The Magistrate saw them staring at it as they filed in, one by one, and her frown eased a little.

  “[Princess],” she said, waving at the head which was nearly as large as her entire body. “A rare spawn. Nearly killed my father, gored him in the chest, and took his left eye. That one went into the Book of Grudges,” she chuckled. “See how well that turned out.”

  That…was a lot to unpack. A small brass plaque beneath the head did, indeed, read “Princess: Level 327.” Much higher than the boars [Sunrise] faced on their way here. But as the group turned to face the intimidating woman, her smile turned firm and she motioned to the visitor’s chairs. Let it not be said that the hospitality of the dwarves was lacking. The chairs the group found themselves in were every bit the equal of the one behind the desk. Plush, overstuffed with soft cushions, silky smooth velvet upholstery, and intricately carved woodwork.

  “Darcy Stoutfist,” she said by way of introduction. “Magistrate of Lakeridge.”

  Alastair steadied his nerves and planned his next few words carefully. This didn’t seem like the type of person who tolerated wasted time.

  “Alastair Trevain,” he said, “And this is our party, [Sunrise]. Thank you for taking the time to see us.”

  “I’m a busy woman, Alastair,” she said, proving his suspicions true, “So let me get to the point. The only reason you’re sitting in my office right now is that I take the protection of my town very seriously, and the last few weeks have been nasty to us. I’ll be blunt. You’re probably capable, as far as fledglings go, but you’re young and don’t look like anything special.”

  She paused as her eyes settled on Melia.

  “Except for maybe your gnome.”

  She let her words settle over the group, but it was clear the invitation to speak was not given. After a second, she shook her head and addressed Alastair.

  “I don’t think there’s anything you could do about a dragon from the Incinerated Spire that our entire militia hasn’t done. Which is to say not much. I’ve already written the crown asking for reinforcements to bolster our defenses, and I want any information you have that might help convince them of our cause.”

  “Now,” she turned to Jessica, “You mentioned yesterday, you don’t think the dragon represents a danger to my town.”

  She scoffed, her disbelief apparent.

  “Are you daft?”

  Jessica’s face was turning an interesting color, and she seemed to be losing the battle of self-control. She was obviously fighting her natural instinct to fire insults in hot blood…obviously losing that fight.

  “No, ma’am,” Jessica said through gritted teeth. “But I assure you, that dragon is harmless.”

  It was clear she was struggling to believe those words herself. But she did, so she said them, and the Magistrate laughed.

  “Girlie, have ye ever met a dragon?” she asked, slipping a little into her dwarven accent. She cleared her throat and continued. “There’s no such thing as a harmless dragon.”

  Secretly, [Sunrise] agreed. They didn’t have anything to say against that. But Melia did.

  “Yes,” she said, frowning while she bounced lightly on her chair. “We have met a dragon. And she gave us this.”

  Short of transforming into a dragon herself (and in the process destroying the Magistrate’s Mansion), she didn’t have much in the way of proving their story. Her party told her sternly that discovery of her true nature would…not go over very well, and until they had a chance to figure out how to downplay the inevitable panic, she should try to keep a low profile.

  Melia agreed, but she obviously had a different understanding of “low profile” than everybody else. She pulled out one of her [Frost Cores] that the [Frost Giants] dropped and placed it on the desk.

  Darcy leaned forward instinctively as the rest of [Sunrise] let out a hiss. Melia glanced up at Jessica’s face; it was a whole conversation in itself. She pursed her lips and gave a tiny nod of her head. She’d play along with whatever Melia had planned, but they were going to have words when this was over.

  “What is this?” the Magistrate asked in a trembling voice, reaching a hand slowly toward the core. It took up a sizable chunk of her desk, and the room grew noticeably colder once Melia took it out of her storage.

  “A [Frost Core],” Melia explained, just in case the woman’s [Identify] wasn’t sufficient.

  “I see that,” she scoffed. “From where?”

  “Up on the Frostrim Mountains. The storm two days ago? Apparently [Froljnar the Frozen] and two [Frost Giants] were summoning it. That’s from one of the giants.”

  On a whim, because she thought she might be able to score some brownie points with the people of Lakeridge, Melia pointed at the core instead of returning it to her inventory.

  “You can keep that if you want.”

  “That’s…very generous of you,” Darcy said, but she still reached forward to pull the core closer to her. “But it doesn’t change the fact that dragons are dangerous. You can’t trust them, not even the ones that aren’t monsters. Especially if they’re giving out treasure, ha!”

  Darcy slapped her hand down hard on the desk as she laughed, causing [Sunrise] to stiffen and sit up straight.

  “No,” she continued, narrowing her eyes after several moments of contemplation. “I don’t think I believe you. That dragon is still a threat, and now that I know it’s intelligent, I’ll include that in my report. The king will want to know about a black dragon in the area giving out gifts. That is,” she paused to lift an eyebrow at Melia, “Unless you have a dragon’s head in that inventory of yours?”

  Melia’s shocked and sour face told the Magistrate all she needed to know about that.

  “Better safe than sorry,” Darcy sighed, ringing a bell and calling for her secretary. When the woman arrived, she finished scribbling down some notes on a letter, sealed it in an envelope and handed it off.

  “See that this reaches Horizon with utmost haste.”

  She turned once more to face the party of adventurers and stood from behind her desk.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have a town to protect and townsfolk that need assurance. Welcome to Lakeridge, we’re always happy to take in a team of new, promising adventurers. Enjoy your stay.”

  ?

  [Sunrise] slowly exited the office after their dismissal, quietly glancing at each other but saying nothing. Eventually, when they were far enough away from the building, Jessica couldn’t take it any longer.

  “Ugghhh,” she moaned, rubbing her temples. “I can’t believe that woman. Is she really that blind? Or stupid?”

  “I can’t believe us,” Ellesea groaned. “That was like looking in a mirror.”

  The others turned to stare at her.

  “Didn’t we just say the same thing only a few days ago? Look at us now.”

  Jessica’s gut wrenched as she realized the [Mage] was right. She looked down at Melia.

  “Were we really that bad?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can’t really blame her then, can we?” Alastair gave an apologetic shrug, “But speaking of….”

  He turned his gaze downward and frowned at Melia.

  “I really wish you had told us about that [Frost Core]. I’m not saying we should have any right to keep it. It’s yours to do whatever you see fit with, but that was a shock. We’re supposed to be a team. It’s fortunate that the Magistrate was just as surprised as we were when you pulled it out, or she might have gotten suspicious about how shocked the rest of us were.”

  “Ah,” Melia hung her head slightly. “Sorry.”

  Then she brightened.

  “If it makes you feel any better, I have a second one?”

  “It does not,” Alastair groaned.

  “It totally does,” Jessica grinned, while Y’cennia nodded her head behind her.

  “Eh, I could go either way.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The others turned to Ellesea, who shrugged.

  “What? I thought we were giving opinions.”

  “Forget that,” Alastair shook his head. “Melia, is there anything else that’s, shall we say, slipped your mind that you want to tell us?”

  Melia tilted her head and snapped her fingers.

  “Oh! I got a quest item from [Froljnar]-”

  “You what?” Jessica hissed. “Shhh!”

  “Let’s take this somewhere more private,” Alastair groaned again. Today was shaping up to be a handful.

  ?

  Back in the room at the inn, four people stared at an uncut sapphire the size of a small boulder. Though rough, unpolished, and cloudy due to all the impurities in the stone, it was incredibly striking. It could probably be appraised for untold riches, but its real worth came from the fact that it was an epic quest item. The system did not hand out quests like candy to children, and even a basic system quest could often change the course of somebody’s life.

  An epic quest? Looking at the [Frozen Heart of the Mountain], the four adventurers wondered what this might mean for the entire dwarven race.

  The fifth person in the room stared out the window, because Melia was getting hungry and wondered if she could plot a way down to the docks to see if they had a fisherman’s market.

  Melia pulled the stone out of her inventory as soon as they got back to their room, but other than checking the description once again to remind herself what the flavor text said, she wasn’t fawning over it like everybody else was. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand their awe. She did have to kill a [World Boss] to retrieve it, so a little bit of stunned disbelief was warranted.

  “[Froljnar the Frozen],” Ellesea was saying, “You killed [Froljnar the Frozen].”

  “What do you think it does?” Y’cennia asked.

  “No clue,” Jessica shook her head, “But it’s gotta be major. It’s epic. It could affect the entire city of Deepholme.”

  “But it can’t be anything too drastic, right?” Y’cennia asked, wringing her hands. “It wouldn’t, like, kill them all or anything, right?”

  “Geez,” Jessica reeled back, “Why the hell is that the first place your mind went to? I mean, how the crap should I know? I’ve never seen a normal quest item, let alone an epic one. Maybe it could?”

  “It won’t,” Alastair reasoned, before glancing at the [Destroyer of Worlds] and hedging his bets. “Probably. Records in the Church show that quest items usually involve returning lost items to their owners, things that have been lost for centuries, forgotten things, stuff like that. Several years ago, a group of [Paladins] found [Lord Ulric’s Prayer Beads]. When they brought it back to the Bastion, one of the [Deacons], a descendant of Ulric’s, was able to class up to [Bishop].”

  “So we just need to find out who to bring it to?” Y’cennia asked. “Do we need to get it back to them as soon as possible?”

  “Probably,” Ellesea shrugged. “Though since this was something that dropped from a [World Boss], it probably isn’t something the dwarves are actively looking for. I don’t think there’s any rush.”

  “How can you say that?” Y’cennia whined. “It’s an epic quest item. It’s got to be important!”

  “Short stuff is saying that it’s a fluke we found it at all,” Jessica harrumphed, crossing her arms over her chest. “If our ankle-biter didn’t do something ridiculous again, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Besides, it’s up to her what to do with it, not us. So, Melia-…hey, Melia? You paying attention? We boring you?”

  Melia twitched on her cushion, shaking her head and causing her ponytails to sway wildly.

  “Hm? No, I find it incredibly interesting. But, like you said, it doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the dwarves. If I didn’t find it, it wouldn’t matter, so I don’t think we need to change our plans just because I did. I’ll take it back to them, and then it’ll be their problem. Then we can get back to more important things.”

  The others stared at her with pinched faces.

  “More important than potentially influencing the fate of an entire city?” Y’cennia asked. “Like what?”

  “Food,” Melia shrugged. “I’m hungry.”

  If anything, the group stared harder. Until Jessica laughed.

  “You know what? Keeping the [Destroyer of Worlds] fed and happy might actually be more important than some silly dwarves. Consider it our heroic duty to oblige. You know what? That makes me a hero. I’m counting it.”

  Y’cennia paled as her eyes went wide.

  “I’m sorry! Lady Melia, I didn’t-“

  “Stop,” Melia cringed. “Don’t call me lady. It’s weird and awkward, and I’m not trying to be anybody’s lady.”

  Ellesea, of all people, shook her head.

  “It might not matter to you, and it might not matter to us, but it’ll matter to some people. Egos are fragile things, and unless you plan to hide away from society forever, you’re going to be found out. You’ve done a poor job if hiding has been your goal this whole time. Once people recognize how strong you are, they’re going to want to prop you up on a pedestal, shower you with titles, and basically try to squeeze every last ounce of profit out of you to benefit themselves. I’m not saying to pander to these people, but nobles are tricky. If you don’t accept a title here or there, other people might get upset and think their own titles aren’t being respected.”

  “Sounds stupid,” Jessica scoffed. Ellesea shrugged.

  “Nobody ever said the nobility had to make sense.”

  Melia took a deep breath and sighed. Maybe she could treat this like an RP session. She could be herself as a gnome, and if she really needed to, she could pawn all the fancy stuff onto her dragon persona. That’s what she had to do when acting in the game, after all.

  “Fine. I’ll compromise. You can call me Melia, or you can call me Lady Meliastraza Obsidianheart. One of the two. I’d prefer it if you just treat me as me, but I understand there’ll be times when it’s important to be proper. Just try to keep it to real serious matters, okay? Like if I need to turn back into a dragon.”

  ?

  Turning into a dragon in the middle of town was not optimal, so Melia wandered around as herself. She wasn’t alone; after the fiasco with the [Frost Core] this morning, the group decided it was unwise to leave the gnome to her own devices. They hit all the necessary spots while also familiarizing themselves with the layout of the town, which in reality was only about the size of a single one of Horizon’s districts, albeit a larger one.

  This saw them stopping by the Aether crystal and the flight path, simply to familiarize themselves with the idea of using these services to travel. A few weeks ago, both were far out of their reach.

  The flight tower was particularly amusing to Melia, observing her friends while they stood on the observation deck, watching the huge beasts capable of carrying others in flight. Gryphons in particular were huge. Not as big as Melia’s true form, of course, but the smallest were still large enough for two big human men to ride on simultaneously. Y’cennia was a whole storybook of emotion as her brain processed the fact that one day, she might have to ride one of these. At first, her tail flicked back and forth curiously, slowly going still as the cat part of her brain arrived at a simple conclusion: this bird-like object was not the prey; she was. The gryphon swiveled its large head curiously to stare at her, and she froze.

  At least the group got a good laugh out of Alastair talking her down soothingly, saying truthfully that the large beasts were fed quite well.

  And speaking of fed, food was definitely on the menu. Not just Melia, but everybody was getting hungry. They stopped by the guild first to check in with what would become their new home base, but they didn’t pick up any new quests. After the fiasco with the dungeon last time, they learned their lesson and decided not to dismiss anything without planning and investigating thoroughly first.

  Most of the other adventurers in the guild were also around their level, though at the moment there only seemed to be two other teams based out of Lakeridge, while a slightly larger handful of solo adventurers called the town home. Overall, there didn’t seem to be quite as many people in this guild as the one in Hammerfall, in part because the whole town was built on the lake and not as many spawning zones threatened to encroach on its borders.

  After the guild, the group made their way through the streets toward the docks. Melia was dead set on some seafood and would not be swayed by paltry offerings such as poultry on a stick…no matter how good some of the aromas wafting from stalls and shops smelled. What they found did not disappoint.

  The walls running around the entirety of Lakeridge were high, reaching up to the second story on most buildings, except for the northmost point of town. Large wooden gates were positioned in such a way that they could be closed to fully encircle the town, but outside of them, the town stretched further. A port or harbor or something was cobbled together from multiple docks with many boats and ships moored after the storm, itching to go back out onto the water. A great square had been constructed as a hub between all the docks stretching out like slender fingers, and Melia’s fears were relieved.

  Lakeridge had a thriving fish market.

  While most boats were either trapped by the sudden storm or their crews were unwilling to risk life and limb out on the stormy waters, there were always a few idiots willing to risk death for the sake of fishing. Back during the game, the developers had something of an…unreasonable fascination with fishing. More than any other profession class, [Fishing] was unreasonably complicated and detailed. Never mind all the different types of bait, rods, and styles of fishing; there was an entire almanac built into the class that players filled out as they caught more and more fish. It was a real slog to fill out, and only the most dedicated [Fishermen] revealed all the different logs for each body of water: morning, night, and day, as well as during different weather patterns.

  Special, rare catches could only be found during stormy weather (which was, of course, different from rainy weather). Players going out at those times were extra extreme, since “stormy” conditions also had a small percentage chance for each catch to turn into a monster instead of a simple fish. As non-combatants, that usually spelled death. The community dubbed the act “Gumping”, in loving reference to the old movie and all the ways to cook shrimp.

  Melia didn’t expect the practice to be named the same thing in this world, and she didn’t hear the term get thrown around, but the art of storm fishing wasn’t abandoned either.

  Judging from how many stalls littered the crowded market, it wasn’t an unpopular endeavor. The market itself was probably the size of a professional sports stadium, and around fifty or so of the hundreds of stalls had people hawking their wares. No wonder so many people complained to the Magistrate about lost and damaged boats. Even if they didn’t go out into the water themselves, fishing seemed to comprise at least three-quarters of the town's economy.

  To be honest, Melia had no idea how real-life fishing villages like this were supposed to work. If she had to guess, she would have thought the market would be saturated, with only a handful of vendors finding a foothold to sell their catches. That there would simply be too much over-saturation, and demand would be too low. Or, at the very least, with so many people out there fishing, the lake would be at risk of over-fishing, bringing in more catches than were sustainable.

  But this world had something her old one did not.

  Respawning fishing nodes.

  Unlike the game, there was no obvious telltale marker where each node was, especially since there wasn’t a mini-map, but just like her node detection for herbs, minerals, and lumber, Melia got the sense she could tell where fish would bite if she wanted to cast a line. And in those nodes, though she couldn’t tell exactly what fish were in each one, she had a startlingly sharp idea.

  For instance, the [Bass] that the nearest monger was hawking at his stall likely came from the southeast of the lake, about two miles away.

  Melia also had a hunch that this lake had a much greater diversity than any body of water (that wasn’t an ocean) had any right to be. She saw at least half a dozen different types of fish, from catfish to trout to bass, including ones she originally thought didn’t belong in freshwater.

  Like crabs, which she knew from back home were often caught out “on the high seas”, as made popular by ancient documentaries and tv shows. While Melia also remembered pulling them out of certain freshwater zones in the game, she chalked them up to “game logic” at the time.

  She spent at least 5 minutes, to the amusement of her team, watching a bucket of crabs, each one trying to climb over the others to get out. Some simply pulled the others down out of what Melia assumed to be pure spite, and amazingly, despite being a tank without a lid, no crab escaped.

  …Melia bought the whole bucket.

  “Did you really need to spend an entire gold on crabs?” Ellesea gave Melia a curious, exasperated stare. Jessica was the only one who truly understood Melia’s ravenous appetite, having been with her on several previous outings. She simply smirked as the gnome excitedly wrestled with the bucket as she worked it into her inventory. Fish were strange like that, being one of the few living creatures that could go inside inventories, though they’d die very quickly if they weren’t stored inside a proper [Fishing] bag or tackle box.

  “Oh, absolutely!” Melia beamed, picking up a particularly feisty crab that was larger than her head. “You’ll make such a tasty treat!” Melia cooed. The crab, oblivious to its impending doom, snipped at her nose.

  It wasn’t that the crabs were expensive, either. “A whole gold” would be ridiculous for any amount of crabs…if Melia only bought a single bucket. No, the crabs themselves were dirt cheap, which was one reason Melia couldn’t resist buying so much. The crabs were only a handful of coppers each, and Melia just spent the equivalent of a thousand bucks. Compared to nearly a hundred dollars per pound of crab legs, this was a real steal.

  She didn’t stop at crabs.

  [Sunrise] spent several hours slowly combing through the fisherman’s market, staying so long that certain boats, which had left in the morning, returned with a midday catch. Melia bought clams, shrimp, trout, and catfish.

  Y’cennia initially bristled when Melia bought the whiskered fish, and she had to fight the urge to tease the catgirl.

  ?

  As Melia proceeded to buy enough fish to feed a small army, the rest of [Sunrise] was not idle. According to the many fishermen, certain parts of the lake were more bountiful than others. It was those rich spots which attracted [Threshers], and the lake was just entering a season of [Thresher] spawns. Each “season” lasted several years, working through a rotation. It looped from no spawns, to weak spawns, to strong spawns, back to no spawns, in roughly five-year patterns.

  Right now, most [Threshers] were still [Young] and had not matured into elites. Once they did, those areas rich in fish would become off limits, since without a dedicated protection detail, the boats would be destroyed.

  Jessica, Ellesea, and Alastair made a deal with a particular group of fishermen who were more ambitious than most. With a party of rank 3 adventurers, they felt confident heading into the deeper reaches of the lake.