THE MOMENT
The clerk looked up suddenly with concern apparent on his face. He'd been answering questions, but that was an unexpected one from the teenage girl. She wasn't even in a guild, and she was asking for dangerous info. It was still early and the Adventuring Guild was mostly empty. There was rarely much activity before noon on Saturdays.
"Yes," he nodded definitively. "We do participate in the Bounty system, but you don't want to start making enemies without a guild of your own to support you." As soon as he answered, Tessa had asked all the necessary questions.
"It'll be fine," Tessa shook her head to keep moving. "Tell me about the top guild," she asked. The school's scoreboard clearly showed off the top six school guilds, so she knew which Guild was in the number one spot; but, she wanted to know what the clerk would say.
"The Black Legion is a powerful guild with over 300 active members. Their insignias are currently worth Six points each, the most available from any guild token. But you don't want to start making enemies without a guild of your own to support you. Especially not from the Black Legion," the Clerk said.
"Perfect," Tessa smiled. She placed a golden token with a flag representing the 'Black Legion' on the counter. "I want to claim a bounty for this Black Legion member I defeated," she said. The clerk's eyes widened as he looked down at the token, then at her.
"You did this on your own?" He asked. He shook his head while collecting the token. "Challenging the Black Legion without a guild of your own to support you," he mumbled. "I'd wish you good luck, but honestly, nothing short of divine intervention can save you." He dropped the token beneath the counter somewhere and a small notification appeared in Tessa's view.
[Black Legion token accepted: 6 points] She waited for a moment, then placed another token on the counter.
"Claiming a bounty," she shortened it. It was fun to roleplay through the first time, but she wasn't planning on giving the full explanation every time. The clerk blinked and his gaze alternated between the token and Tessa.
"You did this on your own?" he asked. "Challenging the Black Legion without-," 'Yes, I did it," she said. As often as NPCs cut off players, it was fun to do it to them too, sometimes.
"I'd wish you look," he shook his head while collecting the token. "But honestly, nothing short of divine intervention can save you." Tessa's balance went up again, but only by six points.
"Claiming bounties...," Tessa tried dropping a handful of the tokens. It would take too long to go through them all if she kept to doing them one at a time. "I did them all myself," she added before he could ask.
"I'd wish you good luck, but honestly nothing short of divine intervention can save you," the clerk repeated his script as Tessa gained 36 points in her vision. She'd dropped seven tokens but he only took six.
"This is gonna take forever...," she grumbled to herself, but a nearby player noticed her frustration.
"Hi, excuse me," he approached with a smile. "My name's Wendell, are you here to turn in a large quantity of guild insignias?" he asked.
"Yeah...," Tessa nodded, not sure where he was going with his question.
"I offer a time-saving trade," he said. "I'll buy all your insignias at half price. You get to go on with your day, and I get to make a tidy little profit. Sound good?" he asked.
"Four points each," Tessa smiled. "They're Black Legion tokens."
"How many?" Wendell asked.
"About 300," Tessa shrugged. "Deal?"
"Three... hundred...?" Wendell had no idea who she was, but he was going to start keeping an eye on her going forward. "You took on the whole guild..?"
"Nah," Tessa shook her head with a smile. "Just their strongest members a few times. They kept insisting on rematches... and losing."