by Kit Falbo
Byron had said they were beyond my ability before. This time he nods slowly. “I think we can work with those.”
I select an ingot that has a dark greenish tint. Eltrim. I know nothing about the material. Nothing was posted online when I had checked. The ingot pulses in my hand. I grin. Finally, something new.
I have never used ingots before. Most of the standard pieces of equipment are already molded and just need to be worked. I try to enchant the bars, but nothing sticks. Thankfully, Byron has a mold for a duelist blade. It would be just like the game to have me jump through hoops to get what I need.
Byron brings out a crucible, and we put the ingot in and set it in the furnace to wait for it to melt. I haven’t given up hope that there will be more advantage to using the ingots, so as it melts, I try a few spells. Strengthen, nothing. True Nature, nothing. I watch the metal swirl into a melted pool. On a whim, I cast my new spell’s positive effect, Best Day. It had failed in all of my previous attempts. I’m rewarded with a small XP bonus floating up in front of me, though repeated castings don’t do anything. We pour the metal into the mold and wait.
I could have finished a new sword in the time it is taking to cool.
“Hey Chess.” It’s Jasper. “You have someone here to see you.”
I walk towards him. Is it possible Mel, I mean Jediwalker, managed to get off early and see me in-game? He’s been lamenting the fact I haven’t been by the shop recently but understands why. It’s a girl though. “Oh, it’s You.”
Sarah Tam, level twenty-seven now, is attractive, with long brown hair and a shapely figure that is exaggerated by her leather armor. That is one way to spot players in this game. Their avatars are almost always attractive as a base aspect of character creation. Even mine, which I randomed, isn’t ugly. I figure I can still see her information because we were grouped together. She stares at me a moment before getting on with it. “I just wanted to apologize to you for what my brother and his friends did to you. Me too, I guess.”
Indirectly their betrayal helped me, even if it was a bummer. “Apology accepted. Not my best day, but it did end up working out okay for me. You really didn’t need to find me.” As I say this, I’m wondering just how difficult the finding was. No player’s name is displayed unless you join a group or want to show yours. This is a nice anonymous spot. Sure, Mervlin and Hephesty know where I am at, but they haven’t told anyone as far as I can tell, and I’m grateful for that. It is bad enough getting asked for favors in real life. I don’t need that in the game, especially with the number of players fast approaching millions. Thankfully, since the release, they’ve expanded starting spots to not just the capital.
“I did try to send a message to you. all I got was a form response.”
I can filter my messages by friend list and those not on it, but outside of Mel, I haven’t added anyone. Players may not be able to see my name, but as long as they know it from the auctions or the created by label, they can message me. “I get a lot of requests, either people wanting special orders or for me to join their guild. I’d have to spend my whole time on that if I had to sort through them all.” I look to Jasper. He seems to be doing his best to ignore both of us. This conversation is awfully close to breaking the game or outside talk rules. “So how did you find me?”
“It wasn’t easy, but I suppose the game helped make it fun. You see, I wasn’t as into this game as my brother. You know him as Axel. My job was to make sure him and his friends were being appropriate. There was some past trouble, and I made a deal with our parents.”
“So, the in-game babysitter?” I ask.
She giggles. “He’d be so pissed if he heard that. I’m older, but we’re Irish twins. But, yeah, pretty much. I’m free of him for a few more days since he got his account suspended. Him screwing up again kind of started this whole goal to apologize.”
Now I’m curious. “What happened? “
“We made it to the front lines. Well, Mad Monk didn’t. He left after Axel started ragging on him for not being useful. He didn’t have the gear to keep up in close range fights. The only reason Axel and Geoorge managed to do what they did was because of the swords they stole from you. My companion Sunell was with us at that point. She had completed her healer training and provided more support than Monk could manage with his brawling focus.”
“You sent your companion to school?”
She looks at mine, who is off to the side trying his best to be invisible. “That’s what most players are doing. Keeps them safe for the prize, has them learn support skills. Mostly crafting or healing. Enchanting has gotten popular, but the guild’s price is high, and they are slow to teach. The unlucky ones end up like Harlow, Axel’s mule. What do you have yours do?”
“Help citizens in return for crafting items. Odd jobs. Gathering information. Jasper calls it being an eccentric.”
She leans in close and whispers, “You check his stats and status?” Then she pauses looking at me. “Oh, you’re not high enough level yet. You get to do that at level ten.”
She backs up and clears her throat. “We made it to the front lines. I was probably one of the lowest level players there. Did you know you’re famous there? When you joined us, I thought Axel was right, that you were just some low-level noob. But there, well you can’t be on the front lines without something from M&H or Chess. Axel had let Geoorge pick his sword, then kept the rest for himself, claiming that Geoorge had taken the best one. He also said he would sell the extras if he ever thought he could get a good enough price.
“My brother really liked to show off the fact he had three of them. But at the front, almost everyone had enchanted items though, except for maybe a few support players, so he was no longer special, just odd. It made him try so much harder. If someone asked him why he had three, he usually just said it was because he was a good player. Everyone there either farmed or paid money for their equipment, so the shit he liked to talk didn’t mean much.
“He didn’t win any friends, but one of the top guilds was willing to offer him a spot for a price. He thought he could impress them. Didn’t even notice their faces change as he told them how he tricked you using the Howlees, with you being a noob about them. Every guild there dreams of recruiting you and having you outfit them, a guaranteed way to win Kingmaker. No guild will touch someone who cheated you.”
I hadn’t thought of that. A team, a way to win, splitting the winnings. I guess I’d just never been into the team thing. Groups in the park were always punkish things, messing with the players at the tables. It’s always just been me and Grandpa.
Sarah continues, “They literally picked him up and threw him out. When word got out, he became a pariah. Geoorge and El Morde left. Morde goes to school with us, so that really burned. Axel got depressed and angry, mostly at you for being such an easy mark. I left him to his melancholy, my mistake. He ended up groping some citizens, all while talking about things outside the game. A stupid thing. He got an alert, and the game booted him. So now he’s suffering a few days suspension. I decided to find you and apologize.
“I’m glad he’s gone. Everything’s better. It’s like he had sucked the fun out of the game. I was even flirting with quitting before he pulled his stunt.” She smiles. She certainly looks less the surly, hesitant ranger she had been in the group.
That long ramble didn’t really answer my question. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, but how did you find me? You go from smithy to smithy, only to stumble onto Jasper here and have him say, oh, he’s inside now?”
“Nothing so mundane, though I suppose it could have gone that way. I know what you look like, that helped. Most people think of you either as like this big hulking smith or some robed mystical Gandalf-like figure. I asked the traveling smith at the front lines if he knew where you were at. He made me describe you before even continuing with the conversation.”
She puffs herself up trying to imitate the smith. “He tapped me in the chest with his hammer,” she says tapping me w
ith her hand. “‘You know him, but does he want to see you? If you were friends, you would know where he is.’” She continues tapping my chest as she is talking in her gruff attempt at a man voice. Which just makes me laugh. Back to her normal voice, she continues, “Well I told him I wanted to apologize and explained the situation. He believed me and said that he didn’t know, but he knew who might know. This started me on a quest.”
“A quest to find a Touched?”
“Like, I guess. Well, I won’t bore you with all the little things I had to do to get here. I got here not one hundred percent sure this was the place, so I asked Jasper. He said yeah, you were here, and he would get you when you were done.”
She shoots me a friend request for the second time in this game. I hesitantly accept, bringing my friends total to two. Her and Mel. “If you can, please don’t spread my location around.”
She zips her lips with her fingers then turns the imaginary key. “Keeping your privacy is actually part of the quest.”
I look back. The sword is probably cool enough now. “You want to see what I’m working on?”
“Sure.”
Byron helps me part the mold and retrieve the green blade. I look to the master smith, “Any advice on the right temperature?” I ask as he brings up the heat on the furnace.
“Never worked this metal before, but I believe you will feel when it is ready.”
Feel? My masterwork hammer is waiting for me by one of the best anvils in the shop. I plunge the blade into the furnace and watch as the arrow slowly moves up. How will I know, I wonder? I wait, and it passes the point where I would pull it out if it was the fine iron. Is it too much? My palm starts to tingle, I pull it out, and I’m rewarded with a satisfying xp boost. It’s not glowing white or orange or red, but a brilliant emerald green.
I take it to the anvil and begin my work, enchanting and hammering as I go. At this level, the strikes often have little hesitations or twists and flourishes in them. Keeping up with the ghost movements is hard, but not as hard as training in the yard was. I heat the blade two more times during my work until I’m satisfied.
Once my mana recharges I take the duelist sigil and press it onto the cross guard, empowering and attaching it to the sword.
Sarah lets out a slow whistle. “Nice. I didn’t know you could make quest items.”
I look at the sword.
Quest Item: Sword of the Duelists. Master crafted, epic quality enchanted sword. Durability 250, Damage 40-65. Eltrim’s True Nature allows this blade to strike insubstantial enemies, +1 to all stats when equipped. Duelists wielding this blade gain +10 attack. Six artificing slots available.
I get two game achievement notifications as well. Both provide a chunk of experience. The second achievement was the one that caught my attention.
Epic Crafter, +5% Crafting quality. Your experience now lets you see Crafting materials quality.
Quest maker, +1 Charisma. You may now make quests and quest items. Quest items crafted cannot be sold at auction and must be used to generate a quest with a concrete goal.
I didn’t even know players could generate a quest. I’d have to check online about that.
I look to Sarah, “You don’t have to stay. I just need some time to finish the piece up and deliver it.” Hint, hint. Now that I remember she’s here, I get a little weird about having an audience. It feels rude to just tell her that, though.
Looking at the materials I brought to artifice with, I now immediately avoid any poor or common quality items and get to work finishing the details. I’m looking for anything that seems relevant to the head Duelists. Sarah watches me trim and add on a few pieces before taking her leave to keep playing and work on some other quests she has active.
I get up and leave the smithy with the finished piece. Jasper looks to me, “You know, you could have had me doing something useful while you worked?”
“Maybe next time I’ll have you fetch refreshments and do my laundry.”
“That’s not what I… “
I interrupt him with my hand. “I know. I think you like going out and doing odd jobs for the citizens, as much as you complained at first. But while I’m doing this quest, I think you need to be with me. How about once we are done for the day, you go and do some research on what it is like to disappoint Mr. Alerin King?”
I watch Jasper stiffen up and bow. He’s rankled. “As you wish my Touched.”
I snort and give him a light rap on the back of his head. “Let’s get back to Allynance and drop this off. Maybe she can suggest which order to approach next. Then you can get back to your helping little old ladies and getting kitten’s out of trees while I keep up my day job at the forge.”
Despite not seeing how the sword would help Duelists issues with the Touched, she accepts it with almost an eagerness. It is nice to see someone like my work, as opposed to just seeing how much they’ll pay at an auction. She suggests the Rangers next, as they tended to be friendlier to Touched, having incorporated some into part-time positions of power.
I finish my day back at Byron’s, working. Without him helping, I’m stuck at the level restriction, not able to make anything as glorious as the duelist sword. I’m done with swords for the day and focus primarily on armor, and a few exotic weapons that I had read were popular enough among other players.
When I step out of the immersion center my face flushes and stings from the cold winter air. I shiver, not just from the cold but also because of the shock to my system from spending the better part of the day in the warm and sunny Fair Quest only to come out into the cold. Surreal. I’m living in a surreal age. With some trepidation, I head to Gamer’s Gate, hoping there aren’t too many people around who know about my online persona. Though after what Sarah told me, some of the reactions from players who visit the game shop make more sense.
It’s a quiet Monday night with school back in session. “Hey Mel,” I say as I enter, the door chiming behind me.
“Jay!” He gets up and gives me a hug.” I’m really sorry for all the trouble I caused you.” At the height of the trouble, some players from a state over had come looking for Chess. Mel had to spread the word that I’m no longer going to that shop and contact the sites who hadn’t yet removed the information. Grandpa would freak if I hint any of this to him.
“It’s okay,” I say peering around the shop.
“None of the troublemakers are here. I was considering closing early before you came in, being a slow day and all. What brings you in?”
“Behind on my research for Fair Quest, check out what’s popular at the auction and do some research for a quest.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you were questing. You only did that last one because they made you.”
“It’s to improve my companion, and I want to find out about player generated quests. Apparently, I’m able to generate my own now.”
Mel let out a slow whistle, “Don’t let anyone know you can do that, or you will have people hounding you more. The game generates plenty of quests, but some players are a little obsessed since ShinyK managed to defeat the first of MoM’s lieutenants and get awarded a minor lordship, making him able to generate quests.”
“Mom?”
“That’s what everyone calls the Man of Masks now. M Oh M, for MoM. Well, news got out, and players started to pester him about giving them quests. He was restricted to tasks that helped his new land out. He also didn’t have the funds to pay rewards on all the quests. Rumor is, some of the harassment was so bad he was able to get a waiver from the company to change his character name and appearance. Once this type of achievement becomes more common, it will probably be fine, but since he was the first….”
“You can do that? Get a waiver?”
“Only in extreme cases. So what type of quests can you create?”
“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I know I can make quest items to give out once you’ve completed them. I can’t sell them though.”
“That’s k
ind of cool. Well, go do your research. No need to pay with the trouble I’ve caused you.”
I decide to at least slip him a five when I leave and head over to one of the many empty computers. First, I check out the auction threads. Archers are lamenting the lack of quality enchanted items for them. Currently, they are either sporting some of the clothes I artificed or the few pieces of leather armor I had bought and done the same with. Armor being so much more expensive than clothes, I just hadn’t considered it cost efficient. Laslow is getting more business but is expensive and booked up. I make a note to buy some excellent quality bows to enchant and put on the market.
The six orders are next. Duelists, Rangers, Knights, Officers, Shadows, and Spellworks. The last three are the most esoteric.
Duelists handle the law and much of the police work, players imagining some glorious thing were quickly disappointed for the most part.
Rangers act as scouts and guides. Since their work brings them to the fringes where players are most active, they’ve been most receptive to training and helping players.
Knights are armored and mounted fighters. They encompass a lot of different groups under their management and often conflicting ones.
Officers are the military branch, managing conscripts and fighting militaries and groups in a more organized fashion. They had originally been the ones fighting on the front lines against MoM, I snicker a little at the image the acronym brings to mind, but now have been relegated to more of a border patrol force as the Touched now do most of the fighting against MoM instead.
Shadows are the intelligence operation, spies, assassins, and undercover work for the government. Most assassins are in a separate guild. The ones that are members of the Shadows only take on government work.
Spellworks is the order of government magic users. Though all orders have casters in them, the Spellworks are more of an R&D type outfit and acted to support different orders when needed. There is a note about them being on their last legs.