Even soaked in water, he was simply accepting the odd circumstances as his reality. The popup appeared again and it said "Quest Completed: Devil's Baptism." David's heart leapt into his chest. He knew exactly who the in game Devil's were. Those were the ones cheating and hacking into the system. He was not a Devil. His mind then immediately flashed to one person. 'Timmy!! That bastard is going to get me kicked out of this game! I knew I shouldn't have ever left the game with him around.' he cursed in his head. He had to check his settings. He looked down at the reflection in the brook. Dark as it was, he could barely make out an image. It looked like a default male with fair skin, black hair and eyes, and a vaguely toned physique. He did not have any weapons or clothes on aside from rags. It was not a good look. David only needed to be scanned at random by a real Sage and it would be all over for him. Since he was going to need to lay low, David was going to have to get going as soon as possible. Anywhere was better than here. David did not want to stay where he was.
Feeling demoralized, he got out of the water. He still actually wanted to play the game after all. Apparently, he just had to go walking in a direction. That was what the in-game menu said at the very least. The peaches all began to follow after him a few steps behind. He was now level 40. Each peach he bit into gave him 20 levels. The water gave resistance to all damage. That meant all attacks only did half damage. The peaches were all level 20 and were immune to all damage. The level system went all the way to 999. Level 20 was not much in the grand scheme of things. Being invincible was still a good thing to have for minions inherently loyal for him. After 12 minutes, there was a white doorway of brightness. He decided to walk through it. After another 3 minutes, they all appeared in a dirty alleyway. David saw that they were all naked. That was not going to fly. "You guys stay here. You need to not be seen until I can get you some clothes." he said. They all nodded and stayed back. David then left the alley and marked it on his map so he would not forget it. He needed clothes.
Incidentally, the alley led to the streets of a medieval city. David needed to find a clothing store. Looking around, he found one across the city. It took a while to get there, but he was able to go in. Since it was the opening week, it was a big perk to get 1500 lin as a starting bonus. That meant he could go in and buy some clothes. He just needed something for the others. Males could go shirtless, so it was up to David to buy 10 pairs of pants. There was a look of confusion on the clerks face, but they did not say anything. David was able to get some linen shirts as well. However, he was only able to buy 7 shirts. This was a high end story for the middle class. He needed some pocket money to keep for himself. More than half his money was taken by this excursion. He returned to the group and handed out the clothes. Everyone was able to get some nice trousers. The 4 females were able to wear the white shirts. That left 3. David was not going to forgo wearing a good shirt when he spent his money on it. The last 2 shirts were given to Alec and Alex. Quinn got the old ragged shirt to wear.
Going bare chested was Bitey and Chris. That was fine with David. What was needed was to get a job and some weapons and gear. Everything that was important to the game required to have something for fighting. All of the peaches were fine since they were immune to all damage. Based on all the pre-release material, the best way to get a job was to find a guild and join it. To lay low, it would probably be a bad idea to get a job that would require a ton of fighting. David found a forge where they were looking for recruits for the smith's guild. He applied and got in immediately. His level was so high that he was the best among the other candidates. The peaches also did not need to wait long before getting taken on by the guild. There were some well to do kids and children of current members that also got in. We were brought in and told about smithing and how the city needed more weapons for a conflict was might be ready to start. The more smiths that could be trained, and trained well, the better the city the city would do when the invaders came knocking on the gates. That was great.
