HC:Pacifist | Ch. 19 - The Full Tour (Patreon)

What? Had he gained a stat just from appreciating art? This was awesome! Roth rubbed his hands in anticipation. What a windfall. He had learned two new ways of gaining free stats. The first one was by giving intelligent and polite answers to NPCs. That could potentially unlock charisma. The other one was by appreciating art. That could earn him extra intelligence.

He looked at the timer. He only had five minutes left on the clock before the potion effect expired. He didn't want to discover what would happen if the timer expired and he was still in the throne room. It was big enough to accommodate its normal human size, but he worried he would have to spend one of the potions the king had given him to stay here. He tried to ask one of the guards.

"Excuse me; I am still not done appreciating the beautiful tapestries here. Could I get one more [Miniaturizing Potion] so I can stay here longer and enjoy them more?"

The mouseketeer looked at the king. It nodded, consenting to the request.

"Here."

Athos, the Mouseketeer has renewed the timer on your miniaturized buff.

Sweet! This way, he could stay here longer. He decided to return to the tapestries and spend longer looking at them. He looked at the first one that showed rats being killed and hunted by humans before the Rain of Fire and tried to spend as much time as he could looking at it. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. 20 minutes. After 25 minutes, he finally got the notification he was hoping for.

Your appreciation for art expands your intellect. +1 to intelligence.

Sweet. A bonus of +2 intelligence after just appreciating some fine art. On a dopamine rush of gaining some free stats, Roth began to brainstorm ways to spend more time and unlock other stats and even a secret title. He approached the throne again. The king didn't seem upset at his prolonged stay.

"Excuse me, oh Majesty, but could any of your subjects tell me more about the glorious tapestries lining the wall? I want to gain more insights into these works of art."

"Oh? An art lover? And someone with such fine taste? Others often despise the art of rodent tapestry. For someone from another race to want to know about it gives us great happiness. I would be pleased to arrange for a tour." Looking at one of his guards, he barked an order. "Aramis, you're the art expert. Please, show our friend the story of the tapestries. Give him the full tour!"

At the mention of a full tour, the Roth saw the other guards grimace. Porthos tried to intervene.

"Certainly, your majesty, a full tour will be too much to our human friend to..."

"Of course, my king," said Aramis, the Mouseketeer, while bowing. The fire in his eyes showed his great happiness at letting loose his passion for the art of his people. Roth had never read the book The Three Musketeers, but he had watched a movie based on it. He remembered that Aramis had been the more cultured and intellectual of the Musketeers. If the developers, or the AI, wanted to stick to the book's lore, it made sense that it would be him to give him the tour.

"Please follow me, good sir." Roth looked confused at the pitiful look the other mouseketeers were throwing at him.

Special Quest Unlocked [Tapestry Tour]

Title: Tapestry Tour (Rare)

Aramis is a connoisseur of the dying art of rodent tapestries. He has longed for a listening ear for many years. He'll tell you everything you need to know.

Question objectives:

- Try to find out as much as you can about the tapestries of the Throne Room;

- Listen to Aramis' ramblings;

- Your 'miniaturize' buff is renewed automatically for the duration of the tour;

- You can't interrupt the tour once you start it.

Rewards: Depends on how much attention and patience you give Aramis.

Would you like to start the tour now? [Y/N]

Roth happily clicked yes. If this worked the same way running did, he might be able to even unlock special titles if he went seriously about this. Anyway, where else could he go? He was stuck inside the game without being able to log out. Inside the capsule, he didn't need to sleep. On top of that, after so many years of prison time and the recent weeks of just running alone from one town to the other, Roth didn't mind the company. He happily followed Aramis as he headed toward the first tapestry.

"This is the squeal, squeak, squeal tapestry. Which in human language roughly translates as the Dark Age of Death. Its maker was a mouse who, before mutating, had lived in the house of a famous artisan in the city. It had been one of the good humans, that one. He would leave crumbs and little snacks for the great artist. Anyway, after the mutation, he began making sense of the work he had often seen the craftsman do and improving on it..."

One hour later...

"And that is why the motif of the player only hints at the influence of the humans in what happened. You see, the artist had some good residual memories of the human race and wanted to let the onlooker know that humans had caused the situation while saying that not all humans had done so. Any questions?"

"Yes, you mentioned what made this master apart from others was his technique to weave the thread?"

Aramis is pleased with your attention and insight. +10 reputation with all mice.

Your appreciation for art expands your intellect. +1 to Intelligence.

Two hours later...

"This tapestry has a funny story behind it. A cat once stole it. You know cats, those awful creatures with no care for the concept of personal property or regard for abiding by the law. Our leader at the time had to gather up a battalion of mice to rescue it from its filthy paws. Looking closely, you can still see where the cat bit into the tapestry, leaving it slightly damaged...

Four hours later...

"Cough, cough. I apologize; I must be pushing my voice too far. As I said, the fourth tapestry on the right was placed here for a good reason. It has to do with the fabric used as a field for the tapestry. Remember, the field is just as important as the thread woven into drawings and patterns...

Eight hours later...

"Any... cough... questions, human? Yes? More questions?! Oh wow! You are quite an enthusiast for art, aren't you? Cough. Please follow along as we proceed with the tour...

Sixteen hours later...

"I'm sorry human... cough, cough. I need to pause for just a moment. Athos, can you give me some water? It's been a while since I talked like this. Alright. Where was I? Oh yes, you asked me whether there are more tapestries other than these ten. And what were the criteria to select these ten out of all others, if there are any? In truth, there are many others, but only tapestries of a certain quality were done here. Let me tell you about the Heist incident when some disappeared..."

After twenty hours of talking about tapestries, Aramis was utterly spent. His voice was hoarse, and he looked exhausted. Roth, on the other hand, was ecstatic. After so many years of staring at blank walls in jail, he felt like a child again, going on a field trip. To be able to learn something new and interesting such as this, even if inside the game, was very exciting to him.

"That... cough, cough... brings... me... to the end... cough, cough... of the... tour."

[Tapestry Tour] complete

Completion rate: S+

Quest rewards:

- 2000(+200)Xp;

- You've gained +50 reputation with all mice.

Bonus rewards:

- 2000(+200Xp);

- You have gained +5 endurance;

- You have unlocked a new title [Art Enthusiast];

- [Tapestry Tour] has been changed to [Tapestry Heist].

- You've gained +50 reputation with all mice.

Oh? A chain quest? And a new title too? Awesome. He went to check both. He had to say he was more excited about the quest than the title, but the fact was that he was getting so many titles that he was starting to feel somewhat picky with them.

Title: Art Enthusiast (Common)

Title description: You have spent many hours appreciating the fine taste and fitness of the talented craftsmen of this world. You leave the experience as a more knowledgeable man.

Title effects:

+ 1% intelligence

Conditions to unlock [Art Enthusiast]:

- Complete relevant quest {complete};

- Spend 100 hours appreciating art;

- Complete 10 or more works of art.

It didn't look like anything great. Mainly because right now, he had under 100 intelligence; it didn't even grant him one measly intelligence point. Perhaps the title upgraded if he did more of it or the more he advanced his character, the better the title would become. He was a bit disappointed, to say the truth. The quest seemed to be the most exciting reward of spending a full day here.

Tapestry Heist (Rare)

During your tour of the Throne Room, you heard Aramis mentioning that once there had been a heist where two of the great works of Rodent art were stolen. Due to your close relationship with mice and your appreciation of art, you investigate the matter and return the stolen tapestries to their rightful place.

Quest objectives: Find out the location of the stolen tapestries. Aramis thinks that it's hidden somewhere in these woods.

Quest rewards: Unknown.

Interesting! He would try to find it out. Who knew what kind of rewards he could gain from doing this quest? In the meantime, he looked back at all the notifications he had received and gathered the gains from listening attentively to Aramis' tour of the throne room. He had gained +5 intelligence, +2 charisma, and, as a quest reward, +5 endurance. He noticed that since he didn't even have 100 intelligence, his [Art Enthusiast] title gave him no bonus whatsoever. What a letdown.

It was time to leave. As Roth looked for Aramis to thank him for the tour.

"Excuse me, Athos. Where is Aramis?

"You tired him out! Our king permitted him to take the rest of the day off." He said in a loud excited voice.

"In the name of us three," spoke D'Artagnan, "I want to thank you for what you did."

"What did I do?"

"Aramis is the most hardcore tapestry enthusiast in the woods. He can ramble on for days on end about the tapestries. He also weaves tapestries in his free time. He just won't shut up about it. It's tapestries, tapestries, tapestries for him."

"Who would have thought someone could break the stubborn tapestry freak like this?"

"You're welcome, I guess," said Roth awkwardly.

Roth finished saying goodbye and exited the dungeon. Roth left the rat's cave, pondering his next steps. He wasn't in any rush to sell the items the Rat King had given him. The King had assured him that the profits would measure his results and not by the speed at which he concluded the task.

It was fascinating that this chamber had been here, and no one had found out. People were so used to killing and looting that they overlooked some opportunities to befriend the mobs. There were so many achievements to be explored by just befriending these races instead of hunting them. Maybe it was because these were the weakest mobs in the game. Perhaps it was because they didn't think it was worth the investment. Old Roth, too, would have rushed through this map as quickly as possible in search of bigger prey to kill. But the current him was granted some exciting opportunities by not running through this map and lingering here.

He started wondering... What else had the other players missed? He opened the forums and started making a list of the different dungeons in the novice map. There was a lot of work to do.

Ch. 18 - Ratatouille

INDEX

Ch. 20 - Plan B