The Escort

I opened up my in-game menu and clicked on Olivia's profile. It said she was online; I hope she's not in the middle of something.

"Here goes nothing."

[Your Invite Was Sent]

Now I just wait.

…

…

…

[~Olivionic~ Is Joining You]

Once that message popped up, a light appeared next to me, and after a few seconds the light vanished and what stood in its place was her, Olivia.

"Hey Josh, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing much. Anyway, I've got a favor I need to ask of you."

"Cutting straight to the point huh."

"Yeah, I've got a stupidly boring mission that I can't bear to finish by myself and wanted to know if you would do it with me."

"Do it with you? How very scandalous…"

"Olivia"

"I'm sorry. Also, yeah sure I'll help you. Oh, what's the type of mission?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes"

"…"

"It's an escort mission."

Olivia's face immediately became dejected and all excitement vanished from it.

"uuuggghhhh… Really? An escort mission?"

"Yeah. We'll need to follow some ingredient gatherer into the woods and protect him for a while."

"So, like, why couldn't you do it alone?"

"It's a mix of being so boring that I lose all interest and that he has an extremely small amount of health; I've tried this mission three times so far, and during the last one I did he ran straight at a bear, punched it which did either extremely little of no damage, then stood in front of it before he was attacked and immediately died."

"So why can't you just ignore this quest?"

"Well, if I do it, I'll get a 5% discount on all potions and ingredients in this region."

"So?"

"So what?"

*sigh* "Never mind, let's just get it over with."

"Cool, and thanks for helping."

"No problem"

I approached the NPC with a large yellow exclamation point above his head and accepted his quest. He looked to be in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, and wore very generic brownish clothes. He was the embodiment of a generic background NPC.

"Why thank you fine travelers! If not for you I wouldn't be able to save my dear wife for you see she suddenly came down with a seve-"

"I know, I know. Skip, Skip, Skip, Skip, Skip."

"But luckily with the help from you, the fine people who decided to aide me today, I believe I may be able to save her life. I know where the ingredients are, but I'll need you to protect me while I gather them. Come, let's go!"

He then instantly turned 90 degrees and started jogging toward the woods. His jogging speed was annoying as well since it was slightly faster than us walking and much slower than us running, and if we fell too far behind a random wolf might just kill him.

They all walked quietly until Josh eventually broke the silence.

"So, you got anything to talk about?"

"I don't think so, not really. How about you?"

"hmmm… school? Maybe."

"What about school?"

"Well, summer's almost over, and school's going to start up again soon."

"Ugh… don't remind me. Does your school make you do summer projects?"

"Yeah"

"Did you do it?"

"No"

"Cool, cool"

"So what are they making you do?"

"Well, fir-"

"OH NO! Wolves and bears are coming!"

The NPC stopped walking and curled himself up into a ball on the floor. After analyzing the enemies, there were five wolves and in fact no bears.

"Come on, we gotta protect him."

We both rushed forward and swiftly killed all of the wildlife that had a sudden thirst for this random person's blood, and once we were done the man stood back up and began jogging again.

"So where were we? School projects, right?"

"Yeah"

"They gave me two main things to do, read a book and write a report on it, and to do a big math packet."

"What's the book?"

"I don't know, I haven't really checked yet."

"…"

"…"

"So what year are you in?"

"Oh, I'll be a senior this year. How about you?"

"I'm gonna be a Junior."

"That's cool"

"Yup"

"…"

"…"

"This is the first ingredient!"

The NPC started grabbing some stuff off a tree, and some more wolves showed up, along with a bear this time.

"You stay back in case any get through; I'll go ahead and try to kill them quickly."

"Alright"

I had two short swords equipped and rushed forward. The wolves were all killed in one hit, but one managed to slip through.

"Olivia!"

"I see it!"

I left the one that got through to her and focused on finishing the last enemy which was the bear. It took two hits, and once I finished, I turned to see Olivia just standing there; I guess she killed the wolf pretty quickly.

"Ah! I got it! Come, we still have two more ingredients to get!"

Ugh… I wouldn't have to try so hard if he wouldn't die with just one hit; escort missions are just horrible.