As an aspiring mercenary traveling all across the many titans of Alrest, there was hardly ever a dull moment for you. Whether it was taking down some fearsome monster by the skin of your teeth, or finding yourself at the behest of a group of blade-toting bandits only to swiftly dispatch them when they least expect it, the world and all the titans that swam or waded through the Cloud Sea presented countless opportunities for quests and adventures. One day, an opportunity like no other presented itself to you. Posted on Torigoth’s notice board, right next to the shredded remains of what looked to be a wanted poster, was a pretty standard-looking quest.
“Traveling Merchant Smalili looking for strong strong mercenary friend to help escort very fragile shipment of ether crystals from Torigoth to base of Sauros’s bed. Smalili will reward generous sum upon completion, bonus if friend not ask too many questions.” The quest notice read. Now typically, something like this would trigger a whole load of red flags, but after looking at the eye-opening 150,000 gold up for grabs as a reward, it would’ve been a shame to pass up the opportunity. Grabbing some essential supplies and gathering your gear, you accepted the quest without a second thought and rented a room at Coedwig Inn to await the merchant. Once the sun had risen, you grabbed all your stuff and headed towards the agreed-upon area near Torigoth's port. Standing near an armu that had a bunch of crates strapped to its body was the merchant himself. A fairly eccentric-looking nopon with thick goggles and a bright yellow coat.
"Meh Meh! Friend arrive just on time! And friend look very strong too! If friend as strong as looks then transport should be no problem!" The nopon exclaimed, bouncing up and down in excitement. From the quest posting alone, you never would've expected such an excitable fur-ball. No longer worried about the validity of the job, you vigilantly escorted the merchant and the cargo-carrying armu out of Torigoth and into the vast plains of Gormott. Even without the help of a blade, many of the monsters around this area were easy enough to deal with, but Sauros's bed was a different story. Fearing the safety of the supposedly fragile cargo, you decided to risk your bonus pay and ask a question.
"Is this armu OK to go so near Sauros's Bed? There are some pretty scary monsters in that area." You asked, gliding your hand across its leathery scales.
"Mehmeh? Friend not need worry! Smalili pulled out all the stops for transport. Smalili rented toughest armu money can buy, not easily scared by big dum dum monsters like cheaper armu." Smalili said pridefully. "Though, many big scary dinos near Sauros's Bed may cause many problems. Smalili not want armu to get eaten up like tasty sausage, so friend may have to carry crate of ether crystals to destination. No need for worry though, should only be short walk."
Pretty confident about how things were going, you and Smalili arrived at Sauros's bed, and thankfully the merchant was telling the truth. Stopping the armu a couple of feet away from a small bed of grass, Smalili instructed you to quickly grab the crates of ether crystal and place them down on the grass. With four crates in total, all being relatively light, you had no problems with lifting and setting them down at the destination well that is until the fourth crate. Unlike the other three, the lid of the crate wasn’t properly sealed. As you went to drop it down onto the grass, the impact of it hitting the ground shot up a cloud of yellow ether dust directly into your face, body, and gear. Fanning away the dust and brushing it off your clothes, you coughed erratically while backing away from the dust cloud.
“Mehmehmeh?! Is friend ok? Smalili sorry. Must have not properly checked crate after ardanian border inspection. Anyway, friend should hurry and hide! Big dino come any minute now.” Smalili yelled, waving his… wing-ear thing(?) at you. Taking on a sauros was not in the cards for you today, and with little hesitation, you ran back to Smalili and the armu and waited for whatever the nopon merchant was planning.
“Take this dum dum dino!!!” Smalili yelled, waiting for the sauros to inspect the crates before slamming a button that was hidden in his yellow coat. In an instant, the crates exploded in a massive cloud of ether particles and dust. It was such a shock that you could barely comprehend what had just happened. You wanted to confront Smalili about having you carry what looked to be bombs without telling you, but as the dust cleared the results were astonishing. What once was a sauros the size of a building was essentially a small lizard barely the size of a shrub. You knew about how strange ether was but had you had no idea it could be used for shrinking down monsters. Regardless, this also worried you for another reason.
"Wait, will I be OK? I got some of that stuff on me earlier!" You asked, fearfully.
"Meh? Strange shrinky shrinky ether only works on big dum dum monsters. Friend alright… probably! Anyway, Smalili thanks friend for helping escort! Here agreed upon amount plus bonus!" While you were slightly skeptical, the fact that you hadn't shrunken at all and the money you had received had imbued you with a fair bit of confidence.
After a hike back to Torigoth you bid farewell to the strange nopon merchant and went back to your room in the inn. Unbeknownst to you, as you drifted off to sleep a strange sensation had caused you to toss and turn in your sleep. When you woke up you didn't really notice anything strange, but the more you looked around, the more things began to get weirder and weirder. The pillows were the size of Ardanian titan warships and the blanket you were standing on looked like a vast sea, with the folds looking like frozen waves. You were less than an inch tall and extremely confused. And then it all clicked. It was that strange ether dust, there was no doubt about it. 'Damn that nopon and his ask few questions rule.' You thought to yourself not knowing how long you'd be shrunken in this state. Being optimistic about the effect wearing off, you found it easy enough to calm yourself down. Thinking that even if it took a good while, no one would enter your room since all your mercenary gear was still there… and then you remembered that the dust didn’t only get on you.
"Crap!" Right on cue, the door swung open.
“Hm? I guess he must have left when I wasn’t looking.” Peering through, was the owner of the inn. Inspecting the room briefly, she saw that none of your belongings were there and shrugged before making the room available to rent. The safety of a rented room had vanished. Knowing that anyone could rent out the room you’re in and unknowingly harm you made the situation a lot more dangerous and you quickly sought to get off the bed and towards a safer location before some other person rented the room. However as you ventured across the vast and soft blanket, you quickly ran into a big problem. “How am I supposed to get down?” You asked yourself staring off the edge of the bed.