Trials of a VRMMO Healer

Chapter 7 - The City of Dawn

On our way to the city, Devlin and Kiira (but mostly Devlin) explained a bit about Illium and its place in the world. Illium was called the 'City of Dawn'. It sat at the confluence of two rivers and a type of stone called Illean Marble had been used to build its most impressive structures. Even smaller buildings and roads used slabs of it for their facades. The marble had golden streaks that seemed to glow when struck by light from the right angles. During dawn and dusk the city lit up with a golden halo.

The rivers, too, had been used to full effect in Illium's construction. The rivers were channeled through the city itself and used to provide water and transportation. Compared to Ourth, Illium was massive, with winding avenues and alleys leading this way and that. EO had no map feature, so before we parted ways Devlin gave me a word of advice: stick to the main thoroughfares instead of trying to explore the entire city, at least until I got my bearings. We added each other to our friend lists and I headed for the first inn I could find.

When I next logged on, I had a mission. Well, two missions. The first was to find the Adventurer's Guild and see if I could claim a reward for defeating Zzixis. I may not have had a request, but I did kill the thing, so maybe there was a bounty on it. It was worth a shot, besides. My other mission was to find an artisan who could turn Splitcrag's horn into something usable. My weapon was, after all, a lump of iron on a stick, so even though I hadn't been playing long, I was due for an upgrade. The streets were bustling and, for the first time, I truly felt the scale of EO at work. The vistas had been impressive, the monsters were exciting, but this city had thousands of people, all going about their daily lives, and I could interact with any of them. Nothing I had ever played came close to this. The villagers in Ourth had felt like real people, but there were still only a few dozen of them. This was an entire city and I had no idea how many others existed in the world. How could I tell they were NPCs and not players? It was pretty easy, actually: Players stuck out like a sore thumb. Compared to your average peasant, players had fantastic armor, massive weapons, magical items that glowed with power, even their hair and faces tended to be different. More heroic and impressive. It made sense, since most players wanted their character to be more striking than they were in real life. Usually that meant more physically attractive, but sometimes that meant intimidating or gruesome. Well, I was no exception.

The Adventurer's Guild was a large, imposing building. While it had the same Illean Marble exterior as the others, but it was a squat slab, rather different from the soaring and delicate architecture of the upper levels of the city. Inside, it was divided into a large social area with seating and tables and a number of reception counters lining the walls. Honestly, it felt a lot like a bank. There weren't any lines, so I just made my way to an open counter with a smiling clerk.

"May I help you, Miss?" he said.

"Er, yes, I killed a boss monster a little while ago and I was wondering if there was a reward. I don't have a quest, but..."

"Are you registered with this guild?"

"No, this is my first time in Illium. I had to kill the monster before I could get here."

He seemed surprised. "That's rather unusual! Well, we do allow adventurers to claim bounties on monsters they encounter while exploring. But first, you'll have to fill out a registration."

He handed me a small card and a fountain pen. Most of it was rather self-explanatory. Name, age (was that in-game or not?), gender, but one field marked 'class' was harder.

"What do I put here?"

"Ah, for 'class'? You can decide that yourself. Adventurers have many skills, right? Well, if you want to form a party, it helps to describe your skills with a title."