165 - Points

“I’m back!” Alexandra pushed the door open with her leg as she arrived home.

Willow was sitting on a brand new carpet, with Nara hiding behind her.

“You’ve startled her,” she said.

“Oh.”

Kam silently came down the ladder from the second floor.

“Sorry, Nara,” Alexandra said, kneeling in front of the girl. “I’ll be careful in the future.”

The girl nodded. “Where is Speck?”

Alexandra looked at her. “Not even a greeting?”

“Hello. Where is Speck?”

“It’ll come out at night.” She looked out the window. The sun was close to setting. “It’s too bright now.”

Nara hid behind Willow.

Alexandra sat beside her.

“Anything new?”

“Not really. Nara is getting used to the house,” Willow said.

“You must be getting bored.”

“No, I—”

“Please. I didn’t take you away from the Iron Library to let you rot here.” Alexandra grabbed her arm and squeezed.

Willow rolled her eyes. “Take me away, she says. I’ll have you know I came of my own accord.”

Alexandra looked at her friend. “If you say so.”

“I’m not bored,” Willow said with a wink. “I have more than enough time to practice enchantments. Besides, I’m keeping an eye on you for my family.”

“Lovely.”

She turned to Kam.

“I’m fine,” the boy said. “Not much progress, but that’s to be expected.”

It would take time for anything to come out of his research, likely longer than the entire time Alexandra had lived in Laika.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad to slow down a little.

Alexandra recounted her adventures in Izrum fighting stone elementals. She gave her impressions of the town while keeping Speck’s thievery a secret.

As night fell on Balrum, Speck came out to play with Nara for a little while. Willow insisted that the young girl had to sleep early.

Alexandra was staring at her journal, watching her contribution points.

Contribution Points: 90

Her points. Her sweet, hard-earned contribution points. All gone to purchase Beer Resistance.

When she explained her plan, Kam was enthusiastic—as much as the boy could be. Willow, on the other hand, didn’t seem on board. According to her, Alexandra hadn’t thought things through.

Well, Alexandra disagreed, and she would prove it as soon as her points started rising.

Any moment now.

Contribution Points: 90 -> 100

“Haha. I told you it was a good idea.” Alexandra pushed her journal in front of Willow’s face.

“You know I can’t read your class art, right?”

“I earned ten points. Just like that. Without moving a finger.”

Every completion of the contract would award ninety points to the person who’d taken it, and ten to her. A generous share considering all they had to do was to get drunk.

Alexandra wasn’t one for alcohol, but she’d had her days—or rather nights. She knew how fast it could be.

“Only 49,990 points to go to recoup your investment,” Willow said.

Alexandra’s shoulders sagged.

“That’s 4,999 people getting drunk,” Kam added. “It’ll take a while.”

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“Hey, I thought you were on my side.”

If even Kam turned against her…

“What about you, Speck? Are you on my side?”

“I. Am.”

“Thank—”

“Not.”

She winced. “Nara?”

The girl shook her head in silence.

Alexandra let herself fall on her back on the carpet. She raised her journal above her head.

Contribution Points: 100 -> 130

“Joke’s on you. It’s still rising.”

Willow sighed. “How much beer did you even buy?”

“I just got Medh to do it in exchange for a few elemental sources. It’s not like we’re lacking money.”

What they lacked was a consistent source of income. Paying people in beer was cheaper than if they had to hire them from more complicated quests.

Contribution Points: 130 -> 170

Alexandra smiled. Things were going well. Willow and Kam were right in that it would take a while to recoup her investment. She knew it from the start, and it was never her intention to make a quick buck.

Her clients would make ninety points every day—the drunker ones would. It would only take them fifty days to gather the 4,500 contribution points needed to purchase a common skill quest.

Once she got them hooked, she’d deploy the second phase of her plan.

Through the night, her points kept rising until she lost interest in numbers going up and fell asleep.

She woke up early in the morning, right in time for her daily quest reset.

Quest Journal

Daily Reset: 06:00 | Streak: 132 Days | 10% All Stats, 10% Skill experience

Next Milestone: 250 Days

Daily Quests:

• Complete a task from Balrum’s council (0/1)

She frowned.

“What kind of weird quest is that?”

“What?” Willow grumbled, shoving her face deeper into a pillow. “Be quiet. Sun’s not out yet, and some of us don't have stats forcing us awake.”

“Sorry,” Alexandra whispered.

She stood up as slowly as she could. Across the room, Nara was tucked into a blanket nest beside Speck, who had collapsed into a motionless, dark fuzzball. The elemental spotted Alexandra and let its physical form dissipate, its source still tucked inside her body. Stepping around the squeaky floorboards, Alexandra crept down the ladder, letting the cool dawn air wash over her as she opened the front door.

As always, her first agenda today would be to complete her daily. Her streak was still far from its previous height at 3,841 days, but it was starting to resemble something decent. Now was not the time to ruin it all.

She beelined for the council. Zeynep had shown her the quest board. This time, she would have to pick a task she could complete in a day.

The streets of Balrum were quiet, but the morning air carried the distinct, sour stench of spilled ale. Cobblestones were slick with dew, and a local baker hauling a heavy sack of flour glared at two men slumped against a public trough, softly singing an off-key ballad about a missing goat.

Ah, my investors, Alexandra thought, admiring her work.

One man was fast asleep with his head resting on a stack of empty wooden crates, snoring loud enough to rattle the shutters above him. That was easily another ten contribution points in her pocket.

When she got to the council, she was stopped by a closed door.

“Figures,” she whispered.

With nothing better to do, she waited in front of the door. It would probably open sometime after sunrise.

She could wait. And to be honest, she was a little worried about her quest. What if there were none? What if she had to travel all the way to Izrum again?

As she waited, a group of three women walked by her.

“Hey, isn’t it her?” one of them slurred as she stumbled to a stop.

“Look at her hair.”

“Thank you for the beer.”

Alexandra nodded at the drunkards. They moved along.

Looks like my scheme is working. They love me.

The sun had been shining over Balrum for ten minutes before the heavy iron bolt finally scraped back. Alexandra lunged through the crack the second the door creaked open, nearly bowling over the woman pushing it.

“Hey! Watch where you're—” The woman caught her balance, clutching a stack of ledgers to her chest. She stopped, scanning Alexandra’s face, and let out a long, exhausted groan. “Oh. It’s you. The local tavern’s favorite patron.”

“Good morning to you too,” Alexandra said cheerfully.

“Councillor Emerh wants to see you immediately. Follow me.”

Alexandra eyed the quest board sitting in the corner of the room. “Why? I’m busy.”

“He’ll tell you himself. Though I must insist you come with me. This invitation isn’t optional.”

Looking into the woman’s eyes, Alexandra knew she wasn’t faking it. She glanced at the quest board again. There was nobody else in the room, meaning she’d need her approval to pick up a task.

“Lead the way.”

The building hosting the council was large, perhaps the largest in town, but compared to what she’d experienced in the Iron Library, or even a random building on Earth, it couldn’t be considered much. It took but a few minutes and two flights of stairs for them to reach their destination.

The woman knocked on the door and, without waiting for an answer, pushed it open, revealing a middle-aged man sitting at his desk, sorting a stack of paper higher than his head. Around him, more stacks of municipal reports leaned precariously on every flat surface, threatening to bury the man behind the desk.

Councillor Emerh had a large, formidable head framed by a thick beard and greying hair tied back in a tidy ponytail. Despite his apparent Gold rank, he wore wire-rimmed glasses that glinted faintly—enchanted, no doubt, to speed through the mountain of paperwork before him. He paused his pen, eyes tracking Alexandra through the magnified lenses with deep fatigue.

“So this is the one,” he said, looking Alexandra up and down. “Thank you, Nehir. You should return to the reception.”

Nehir nodded and made herself scarce.

“Alexandra Ward,” Emerh said. “What am I going to do with you?”

Alexandra raised an eyebrow. “You tell me. I don’t even know why you called me here. Good morning, by the way.”

“Good morning.” He paused, letting the silence settle. “Mind explaining why half the town is drunk?”

“Half?” Alexandra summoned her journal. “Not quite.”

Contribution Points: 170 -> 6,540