Gold and Bronze...

"Why wasn't anything like this in the instruction manual?" Fedora said aloud. She had no one else to talk to around here, not even a stray "pet" monster. 

Maybe if she went on a quest she would feel better.

Yes. She'd go to the gold dragon and ask for a quest. She would have something to do in this endless, goalless RPG.

"Hello... gold dragon?" Fedora peaked her head around the corner. A face decided to pop out back at her in the shape of a large female dragon.

"Come for a Quest?"

 "Yes."

"Let me see...  you can go on a quest with me for four magical weapons--no wait wrong thing. Just give me a minute." The head disappeared back into a cave.

For an NPC this character was very life like.

The dragon's head popped out once again. "All right. I need you to fine me something very special, so you need to get a party."

"Are you sure you have a quest for me?"

"Uh...."

Fedora faceplamed.

"Come back in an hour or so, and I'll give you a quest."

"GET HER OFF OF ME!" Ushi-chan cried at the top of his lungs as a young acolyte clung to him.

"It's just hair dye!"

"I LIKE WHITE HAIR!"

 "You aren't allowed to have it! Only people like Alexei can!" Quis accused as she poured blue-purple die on the young man's character.

"Arrrrrgh..."

Meanwhile the somewhat sane  members of the party were over to the side drinking tea and pondering the meaning of the game. Also Kari was fuming about her newly dyed red-black hair.

"What is this game for?" Lilu said as she put yet another lump of fake sugar in her fake tea.

"What are any online RPG's for? Absolutely nothing." R-chan said while polishing her bow.

Quite randomly, Mouse said out of the blue, "We should go on a quest."

Everyone paused. That was a good idea, but how many original quests could they have in this game?

"I doubt we should start one." Kari said as she scrubbed her hair vigorously with a sponge filled with bleach.

"Why not?"

"I told you why, Mouse."

Ushi-chan stalked over with Quis hanging from his back. "So... may I borrow some of that bleach?" As the disgruntled mage took the beach he saw a flutter of orange and red.

Could it be? YES!

"Fedora! I'm so happy to see you!"

"What happened to your hair?" was the first thing that came out of the knights mouth.

With a sigh the mage narrated his tale of how Quis insist that only two men can have white hair and green eyes. It was insane and rather silly, but she succeeded in dying his hair an awful shade of blue-purple.

Fedora did her best not to roll her eyes. "I have to ask you a question Ushi-chan."

"Oh! Go ahead!"

"Do you..." she felt extremely stupid asking this question, "want to go on a quest with me?"

He did not have to think about it. "I'll do it."

"Why--What?"

"I'll do it."

"Oh... my..." Fedora did the only thing she could think to do. She hugged him.

"I think we should be going," Kari stood up and brushed off his robes.

"Awwww... but we just got here!" Quis said as she fiddled with her mace.

"Haven't we discussed this? Look at the date."

"... Oh." Quis seemed completely put out. "We should be going then. Too bad Uny and Kiwi didn't get to play."

"Enough, enough. Let's leave these two love birds alone." Kari said as she logged out.  Several females of the party giggled before they left, and Z gave a little wink before logging out.

"Well. Now that we've publicly embarrassed ourselves why don't we get moving?" Ushi said on a positive note.

It was the most difficult quest in the history of the game. It was also the most vague quest given to anyone. The dragon had simply said they had to find an NPC who would give them something gold and something bronze. When they had the objects they were to return to the dragon and receive a "prize."

In the world of Far there were at least a hundred regular NPCs on each server. That did not include the Non Playbles who were for special events only. 

It would take months to look for that single character. They could ask around, but that would still take time. Whatever happened they would be stuck on this quest for months.

Then again, maybe not.

Like the wise knight she was, Fedora suggested that they start with all of the Halloween Special event  NPCs who still seemed to be hanging around. That narrowed it down considerably, but it was still tough work.

They did eventually come across a very odd NPC, who seemed to know what he was doing. You see the only problem was that he was a dark Cleric.

Fedora never did trust dark clerics, and Ushimo always kept his distance, so why now were they depending on him.

That brought them to the issue of the abilities of the Non Playables. Each one obviously had a different task. Many of them were merchants and could only sell things or they were things that could give quests. Sometimes when the programmers were feeling defiant they would program a few characters to do malicious things.

Sure, most monsters did things that were malicious, but they did not count. They would eat you but they would never stab you in the back once you trusted them, because you never would trust them.

These NPCs were much different. This one especially, because it was acting like it was.... well paranoid.

The NPC slowly came the a stop in front of a rather creepy looking forest. The trees were gray, and cracking from the odd mist that hung in the air. A few scattered leaves were on the ground but not a single blade of grass grew. That may have been because of the massive amount of cracks and crevices that ran through the ground. Presumably the mist was spewing from there, but neither Fedora nor Ushi-chan could really tell. Looks were deceiving  and all that jibberish.

"So... Where's this NPC?" Ushi-chan said just to break the silence.

"You're looking at him." The black cleric said as he put both his hands in his sleeves. 

"..." Fedora could not do much else.

Ushi on the other hand was very loud when astonished. "You are kidding us right? You're just going to lead us into the forest and kill us right? Yes! You probably are!"

"No. I won't. Now, ask me if I have something to give you."

Fedora shrugged and went along with it. "Can you give us anything that will further our quest?"

The cleric produced an object of bronze and an object of gold from each sleeve. "You need to go back to the gold dragon if you want these to be useful." He placed the gold object and, with a bit of hesitation cave the bronze object to Ushimo.

"That was surprisingly easy." Fedora said blinking, "Is there a catch?"

"Of course," The priest grinned, "I'm not about to tell you since we will be enemies someday." With that he spun on his heals and headed into the forest, leaving both the knight and the wizard in a mild state of shock.

"What," the wizard made sure to choose his words with care, "did he mean by that?"

"I don't think, I want to know. It's already bad enough that I'm stuck here, bored out of my mind."

The wizard shifted his weight. Oh dear, should he tell her of the news? Maybe it would be a good conversation topic for the trip back....

"Hey, Fedora... I need to tell you something."

"Go ahead."

"About that rumor Jules was talking about... well there is another part to it. You see the administrators seem to be stuck in the game just like you... and--"

"Let's just finish this quest before you spill anything else."

"...Okay."

"Wonderful job! So now I can give you some very powerful items!" The dragon said in a far too cheery voice.

Fedora sooooo did not sign up for this.

"So for you, Knight, I give you the Holy Sword. It has no other name, and it is what you think it is. Take good care of this, and if you ever meet another dragon, show them this sword. If they are friend they will let you pass, if foe they will choose to flee. Now, if they see the sword and it means nothing to them, you may be in a spot of trouble." The dragon quickly made her way into the gave and back out. In her mouth was a large sword, of the Broad variety, which had hundreds of intricate designs engraved on the scabbard and even the blade itself.

It was an amazing sight to behold the rarest sword in all of RPGdom. How did Fedora manage to receive this on such a peculiar quest? 

Even with this question floating in the back of her head she graciously accepted the sword with the proper little speach.

The dragon then turned to Ushimo. "I have a very special gift for you." With a loud pop sound something appeared in the dragon's talons. It was a small brown head band with two little cat ears placed at the top.

"Cat ears? Cat ears?" Ushimo almost hissed. 

"They may seem common place, but they are far from it! These will give you amazing magical powers, that many others can only dream. Forget all the other cat ears, even the silly little pair you already own. Those are nothing but novelties..." The dragon paused as he gave her a very skeptical look, "Look. Try them, and if you don't like them come back and I'll give you something else."

"Herm... All right then." Ushimo was carefully handed the furry things. Reluctantly he placed them on his head and and gave the little speech of acceptance.

With that the dragon turned around and did what ever NPCs do when they are not being used. That left Ushimo and Fedora at the entrance.

Cat ears? The Holy Sword? Where the tides changing in the "heroes" favor or would calamity strike next?

The better question was: How long will things remain peaceful?