Steel Orc- Player Reborn

by Deck Davis

  Konrad walked out of the room, leaving Tripp and Bee in the work studio.

  Tripp put Konrad’s stash on the workbench and studied it. It was a silver-grey box with no lid, no hinges, and no buttons to open it. He couldn’t figure out a way of releasing what was inside, but he guessed that was because he was using his eyes. Like Konrad said, your eyes could lie to you.

  He put on his goggles, dimming his vision. With his artificery skill working, he peered at the box, examining every inch of every surface, turning it over and over to see if he could spot the little holes that marked where he could use artificery on it.

  There was nothing. Or, nothing he was skilled enough to see yet. He needed to level up.

  First, he had a labyrinth to think about. The best solution he had for room two so far was to balance the floor platform so that it didn’t tilt, which would then let them fight the fiends without being worried about plummeting into the lava. There had to be a way of doing it, but he couldn’t figure that out yet.

  Knowing the solution to room one had taught him something, at least. He needed more information. He had to learn more about the room. That could be the key to it; so far he’d only seen one side of the place. The way the floor tilted had revealed the abyss waited to devour him way below it, but maybe there were things under the floor itself. He just needed a way to be able to see the underside without falling to his death.

  With that in mind, he checked his crafting card for the Boots of Anchor.

  Crafting Card – Boots of Anchor

  Artificed boots that defy the laws of gravity.

  Materials Needed:

  Metal pieces x2

  Anti-gravity essence

  “Hey, Bee,” he said.

  She faced him. “Yep?”

  “We need to make some anchor boots. It says I need metal pieces, and the fact that it doesn’t specify which metal probably means I can use any. That’s simple enough, so I’ll just mine some iron. Getting the anti-gravity essence is the tricky part.”

  “Frorargs shoot fire, right? And you get fire essence from them. So you need to find a creature that defies gravity somehow.”

  “Do you know of any?”

  “I have the same experience of Soulboxe as you. I’d guess that anything you need to complete the labyrinth will be in Godden’s Reach. You just have to find it.”

  “We need to go exploring.”

  His first thought was the sleels might be the answer. After all, the sleels could fly, and surely things as big as that could also fly were giving the middle finger to gravity? He’d read that according to the laws of aviation, bumblebees should have found it impossible to fly. Maybe sleels were the same.

  Then again, he’d have to level up like crazy to take down a sleel. They’d gotten lucky finding a lower level one the first time, but he didn’t want to spend all night tracking them to find one he could kill. Even when he found one, the lowest-leveled sleel would still rip him a new bumhole.

  There had to be an easier way, but he wasn’t seeing it. He guessed the reason he wasn’t seeing it was because he didn’t have enough information.

  With that in mind, he and Bee left Mountmend. As they walked through the dwarf town, he noticed a change in the air. The surrounding players seemed hurried; they were gathering in groups, chatting, some of them hunched around maps and pointing at areas of Godden’s Reach like they were war generals. He saw more people wearing armor than he had before, and sunlight flashed over steel chest plates and glinted over sword blades.

  “Must be because of the event,” said Tripp. “They called it Blood Wave. With a name like that, it has people worried.”

  “I wonder when the monsters will start coming into towns.”

  “And I wonder what the monsters are? At least we can go to Old Kimby or Konrad’s work studio when they attack. I doubt they can reach us there.”

  They left Mountmend and went onto the plains, traveling further east than they’d been so far. Tripp sent Bee ahead of him to test the increased tethering that leveling up had allowed them.

  He was looking for any kind of creature that he could think of as defying gravity. The frorargs weren’t the answer, and neither was a pack of creatures he saw called mud-voles, which were too small and scared to worry him.

  One bonus of spending all day out in the plains was that he filled in the blank parts of his map, and he saw creatures and places he hadn’t known existed in Godden’s Reach. The plains were home to a varied eco-system of plants and creatures who hunted and fed off one another, and players in turn hunted them.

  Something that stood out was that hunting in Godden’s Reach was a solitary pastime, and most players gave Tripp a wide berth if he got close. He guessed it was because PVP was enabled in the plains, and people who spent their time hunting and foraging probably hadn’t focused their characters on fighting. That suited him.

  On completing his map of the area, he saw that it was far from just an unbroken wave of nothing but grass. From a distance, he saw a place called the Church of the Damned, a gothic structure with lots of spikes, gargoyles, and a giant spire piercing the clouds.

  He saw a tavern due south, near a crossroads that Tripp thought led to a different part of Soulboxe. East of that was a hole in the ground, and when he got close he saw that it had a name; Jorgeir’s Tomb. He guessed that it as the beginnings of a quest.

  Completing his circumference around the plains he came across a broken cottage with a witch sitting outside it, who hailed him from the distance. Tripp saw the glowing-purple wand in her hand and took a longer route around her. Then there was a statue which had spiral steps leading down below ground, and further north east a quarry full of creatures called stone daemons, whop howled at each other in guttural voices.

  There was so much to do in Godden’s Reach, and such a varied range of creatures, crafts, places. Tripp resisted the temptation of it all, and focused on finding the creature he needed.

  Eventually, he found what might be the answer: a bloated flying insect called a thumblebee. It resembled a normal bee that had been loaded into some kind of nightmare machine, bloating its body until it was the size of his head, and with a stinger sharper than an arrow and glistening with venom.

  Killing one proved difficult. As an orc clad in steel armor, he was about as agile as a sumo wrestler with lead weights strapped around his ankles.

  With persistence and multiple slashes with his morning star, he managed to bring one down. He smashed it up into its essential components using his Deconstructor mallet, only to look upon a pile of dust.

  Venom essence

  Can be used for poison damage or to increase poison resistance.

  “Damn it. Not what we need,” he said.

  “It’ll still be useful though.”

  “Maybe, but not in room two.”

  “I don’t know. With your track record of poisoning people, it’s bound to come in handy,” said Bee.

  “If you can’t beat your enemies by force, poison them. Honor only exists as something to get good men killed.”

  “You don’t believe that.”

  “I didn’t, but I’m starting to think that honor shouldn’t be an absolute. There’s a time and a place for it. After all, look where it got me outside of Soulboxe. Come on, it’s getting late and we better find more flying things.”

  “Maybe you’re taking this anti-gravity thing too literally,” said Bee. “Soulboxe has a realism to a point, but it’d be impractical to load a completely scientific realism into the game. You need something that just appears to defy gravity.”

  He thought about it. What had he seen that might do that? The answer had to be in Godden’s Reach somewhere because his whole questline was based there.

  What did he know about the place? Most of it was covered by the plains of swelling land, a giant expanse of grass that was designed as a grind area for players to level up and was teeming with appropriately leveled creatures.

  Then there was the human town,
and the orc settlement, but he didn’t think the answer was there. If it were as simple as buying some essence from a trader to achieve an anti-gravity effect, then it went against the ethos of the dungeon.

  Where else was there? Old Kimby? Something in the mountain?

  The inspiration was a syringe of pure caffeine.

  “Wait a second…”

  “You’ve got something?”

  “Maybe. Let’s head back to the mines.”

  It was afternoon by the time he got back to Mountmend, through the darkening streets, and back into Old Kimby. He headed through the tunnels and to the mining area where the air became thick, the darkness more pronounced, with just the glowing of the wall limpets lighting the way and spreading a light show of purple, yellow and blue radiance through the caverns.

  He stopped beside a wall. “The Boots of Anchor are designed to help me stick to things, right? To keep my place on tricky surfaces.”

  Bee nodded. “For the tilting.”

  “Right. But you had it. I was taking it all too literally.”

  He pulled a purple limpet from the wall. It resisted him at first, stuck fast on the stone, but with an effort he freed it, and a trail of goo stretched out.

  He turned it over. The limpet had slimy suckers on its underside, and they contracted and then spread over his fingertip when he poked them.

  Setting it on the ground, he used his Deconstructor mallet. The limpet was so small that with one strike it dispersed into its essence, leaving a pile of purple grains on the ground.

  Limpet Essence

  Effects: Increased traction on smooth surfaces.

  Tripp grinned. “Bee, I think we have it! Let’s mine some iron and then get back to the studio.”

  Two hours later, Tripp carried ten iron pieces, two carbon pieces, and a dozen limpets back to Konrad’s work studio. There, he deconstructed the limpets into their essence.

  With his materials laid out in front of him, with his anchor boots crafting card in sight for reference, he got to work.

  Where before it had taken him almost all his effort to warp the iron whilst keeping his mind focused, it was easier now that he’d loaded a point into his mind stat. Not a great deal easier, but he found that his mind wandered less and that the metal seemed to respond more, changing and twisting the way he needed it.

  Soon, with an aching arm and his forehead covered in sweat, he looked at the fruits of his work.

  You have made [good] boots

  You have made [good] boots

  You have made [excellent] boots

  You have made [good] boots

  This was a champagne moment. Maybe some people would have popped a bottle of bubbly because they made some boots, it was enough to get Tripp’s blood roaring. His first excellent item. It would have been enough if all four pairs of boots were just good, but this was a bonus. Obviously, he’d keep the excellent boots for himself. It was only fair, right?

  The good news didn’t end there, though. On completion of the last boot, a notification flashed up.

  Armorer skill leveled up!

  Rank increased: You are now a Tin armorer!

  After working through the four levels of Nickel, you have boosted your overall armorer rank. You are learning how to work with metals, how to craft them, how to bend them to your needs.

  Choose a discipline:

  Concentrating your skills in one area will increase your prowess in creating related items. The Tin armorer must select a path on which to focus his skills. Choose carefully, as this cannot be changed.

  Weaponsmith – Weapons you create last longer and deal more damage. You have the added bonus of a chance at creating weapons ranked as uncommon and above, subject to overall armorer level.

  Armormaster – Your armor and shields are made from sturdier stuff, absorbing more damage and breaking down slower. As above, you have the added bonus of a chance at creating armor ranked uncommon and above.

  “Want my advice?” said Bee.

  “I can guess. Weaponsmith, right?”

  “You know me too well. But think about it; you’re loading all of your points into mind and technique, right? That leaves you with a weakness when it comes to power, which governs hitpoints and how much damage you do. Weaponsmith is a way to bridge that weakness while staying true to crafting. In fact, you’ll be using your crafting to get stronger.”

  “Because if I can make better weapons, I’ll do more damage.”

  She had a point. The only thing that drew him to Armormaster was the fact that Konrad’s solution for getting the gold chest in room one relied on creating a mirror shield, which came under the armor item type.

  But the solutions weren’t all going to be the same. While armor crafting would work in one room, that didn’t mean it’d work in others. In fact, he guessed the labyrinth was designed as an all-around test of his abilities.

  Yep, that was it. The epiphany came to him with the force of a warhammer to the head.

  The solutions in each room would test different parts of his crafting. The solution to room one relied on armor; the others would be different, and that meant weapons were going to come into play at some point.

  Besides, he couldn’t help thinking how cool it would be to design and craft an amazing sword. If he leveled enough, he could make something rare…maybe even mythical. The types of weapons that weren’t given standard descriptions like 'iron sword' or 'steel axe.'

  The types of weapons that he could name himself.

  Tripp’s Warhammer of Fury, anyone?

  The Axe of Legendary Tripp Keaton Thunder Strike?

  Then, he could do the same with armor. He could create shields, helmets, legendary chest plates.

  The hovering text shimmered as if to prompt him for an answer.

  CHAPTER 39

  Congratulations! You are now a Tin armorer of the weaponsmith discipline.

  - Increased weapon damage

  - Improved focus and manus use when crafting weapons

  - Chance to craft weapons ranked ‘uncommon’ and above unlocked

  His advancement filled him with renewed energy, and everything seemed louder and brighter and more beautiful. The distant light that came through the window from Mountmend’s lamps, the heat of the forge that banished the chill of the studio. He was just an orc who was loving life.

  It was almost a spiritual feeling. It seemed stupid to say, but he’d come to realize that it was one of the joys of Soulboxe; that feeling it gave you when you worked and worked and felt your skills improve, felt your talent multiply inside you.

  The hammer badge by his head changed from nickel to tin, and although it wasn’t the most glamorous of metals, it looked beautiful to him.

  He couldn’t wait to get started on weapons. To find or buy crafting cards, to turn lumps of iron and steel into instruments of death.

  First, he had some limpet essence to use.

  He strapped his artificer goggles over his head and looked at the iron boots. He stared at them the same way as he did with the magic eye pictures he used to enjoy as a kid. If you looked at them too intensely, you saw nothing. But if you adopted a kind of relaxed concentration – a contradiction, but it made sense to him – then a picture started to form, the colors so cleverly designed that they seemed to rise from the picture and take a 3D shape.

  He began to see the little artificed pinpricks in the metal boots. Where before he had only seen six holes in his pieces of iron, he now saw eight. He guessed that as his artificery and armorer skills improved, more essence holes would appear in his creations.

  And the more holes, the more essence he could imbue them with.

  It made sense why his fire-resistant iron pieces had melted in the lava in room one. At the time, he just wasn’t capable of loading enough fire essence into them to give them true protection from the lava.

  Things were clicking into place, and it was a wonderful feeling.

  He spent the next twenty minutes carefully placing pinches of limp
et essence into the boots, careful to only fill the circular holes, since these were the artificery points that added resistance.

  When he was done, notifications beamed in front of him.

  Items Created: Boots of Anchor x4

  Artificery skill leveled up!

  Rank increased: You are now a Tin artificer!

  After working through the 4 levels of Nickel, you have boosted your overall artificer rank. You are learning how to work with essence, how to use it to add damage and resistance to your items.

  Choose a discipline:

  Artificer-alchemist: An alchemist can combine different ingredients to produce different effects, while an artificer-alchemist can do the same with essence, leading to much grander products. A regular alchemist can use essence in his potions, but he cannot mix essences together until he reaches ‘master’ rank.

  Artificer-inventor: An artificer inventor is a pioneer of creation. Rather than walking the path already laid out, you use the materials and essence in new ways. An artificer inventor can create crafting cards.

  Wow, another rank increase! That meant he was a Tin rank in two of his skills now, and he was close to increasing his mining and underlay skills to Tin as well. Seeing two tin badges floating by his head filled him with pride.

  More important was yet another choice, but he had no doubt about this one.

  As much as mixing essence together appealed to the creative side of him, he knew what he needed to do. After all, his past struggles had signaled it to him.

  Crafting cards. They were the building blocks of his skills, even more important than the raw materials he used. Without the cards, he couldn’t make things, and the cards were either tough to find or cost more gold coins than he had.

  But if he could make his own…

  He made his choice quickly this time.