Mageblood

by Christopher Johns

  Basic sword

  Quality: Common

  Base dmg: 2-5 dmg

  Durability: 10

  Worth: 5 silver.

  The other weapons were much the same, except the damage ranges varied. The glaive did the most at three to five damage a hit. But it was also a two-handed weapon. It would be good for use in a lot of situations where range was needed, but it wouldn’t be ideal in close quarters without some serious training. But if I was going to be smart about this, I could take it and sell it, then use that money to buy a better-quality weapon, or two if it sold better. Then, potentially, I could have two common weapons and be better off.

  In the end, I picked the glaive, and Filk gave me another poor-quality sword to use as well as the shield.

  “Thank you so much, this will help me a lot in the coming days.” I held out a hand to shake Filk’s, and he grabbed me by the wrist.

  “Be strong out there, an’ don’t ever become complacent.” He smiled and then looked to his apprentices. “Complacency will kill the lot o’ ye, but this one has hope!”

  The men in the room just stood up and grinned at me, clearly used to their master’s antics. I waved goodbye to them all, and as Felix opened the door, they all shouted in unison.

  Felix and I roared back and walked outside. We walked a few feet away from the armory, and Felix nodded to me. “Ye ever make yer way out here again, be sure to look for me an’ the lads. Tell us yer tales over a pint. Aye?”

  He held his hand out for me to shake, and I took it and shook it firmly.

  “You bet, Felix. Thanks for teaching me.”

  “Pleasure. Now, go save the world.”

  I opened the blinking notification in the lower left-hand side of my heads-up display and clicked yes to leave.

  Chapter Six

  Welcome to Iradellum, wanderer.

  The message greeted me after I blinked and suddenly, I stood in the square of this gigantic city. The colors were exciting as the sun peeked over the structures in the east, bathing the area in deep purples and oranges with hints of red and gold light, just behind some large buildings. The sound of running water behind me made me turn around.

  The fountain was massive, quadruple tiered, but the interesting part of it was that there were creatures and beings playing in it. Sprites with blue skin and shimmering wings skated and glided across the floor of the lower portions with huge fish that resembled koi chasing them as they giggled and squealed in delight.

  Cat-like creatures with long tails, fins on their ribs, and whiskered faces basked in the light of the growing dawn. Their purrs sounded a little stuffy to me, like a stub-nosed fat cat, but they seemed fine. I was a bit of an animal person, and they did look cute, their aquamarine-colored skin reflecting the refracted light from the water beautifully, so I wanted to touch them.

  “Probably not a good idea wanderer,” A soft, melodic voice reached my ears from the top level.

  I looked up to the top-most bowl of the fountain, a large statue of a mermaid holding a pot of water on her head with water flowing out of it, down her body and into the fountain below. I thought for a moment that it had been the statue that had spoken to me, but a head of roughly the same shape peeked out over the bowl before completely coming out of the water to lean over it with a friendly smile.

  “They really only care to be touched by creatures with an affinity for water magic, so unless you have a water spell somewhere in you, they may get upset with you.”

  “Well, thanks for that.” I looked longingly at the animals before loosing a defeated sigh. I had no idea what to do now.

  “Looking for what to do next?” The mermaid asked cheerfully.

  I blinked up at her a few times before responding carefully, “Ye…s?”

  “This is Wave Square, if you follow the rising sun to the other side of the city, you’ll find the basic quest board. There, you’ll be able to take jobs to get you experience until you’re strong enough to join the adventurer’s guild.” She pointed to our right, east, and then settled back down. “It’s a bit of a hike, so don’t get too worried if you don’t find it quickly. Folk in Iradellum are usually pretty friendly, so you’ll be okay asking for directions.”

  “Thank you, I’m Kyvir, what’s your name?” I waved at her and stepped closer.

  “I’m Trickle, and this is my home. So, if you ever need someone to chat with, I’ll be here!”

  I looked from her to the area around her, and I was surprised to see a massive river of water that fed straight into the bottom of the fountain and stopped. On the other side of the fountain, water fell out of the side of it and into a single deep-looking well that had small bits of rising water coming up the sides into rivulets along the ground covered in a glass-like substance as it moved off out of sight in all directions.

  “Hey, Trickle, where does the water go?” I bent over the side of the well but saw nothing.

  “Water from the ocean is diverted here to me, I cleanse the salt from it, and purify it so that the people of the city have water to drink.” She smiled down at me again, a little wider this time. “No one has cared enough to ask me that. Especially not the wanderers. Thank you, Kyvir, and good luck!”

  She ducked back behind the lip of the bowl, and a gout of water splashed out toward me. That was so cool.

  —Where are you?— A character called Monami Sunfur whispered to me through the chatbox. It was weird because I could see it, and hear it too. A small pulse at my left ear.

  I responded, tapping the question and chose to respond in a whisper. A pop-up explanation flashed in front of my eyes.

  Whispers – select a name that you know, and simply whisper your message to them. They will receive it in seconds.

  That’s super cool. And convenient. I wondered what the party chat feature would be like. Would there be one? Likely.

  —I’m in the Wave Square, on my way to the quest board in the eastern outskirts of the city. You? Are the others here?—

  —I’m already there. See you ASAP!— she responded quickly, and I took off at a speed walk.

  I was careful not to hit anyone as I walked. Sometimes waiting for people to move or offering a hello. There were weapon vendors and the like everywhere, but people seemed to tense up when I approached, and skitter to the side.

  I saw one guy, this hulking orcish fellow, mow down an entire group of passersby in his hurry to get somewhere. And he was dressed similarly to me. A wanderer.

  I heard a muttered curse and stopped to help one of the people on the ground up.

  “Bloody monsters, the lot of them,” the person grumbled, then realized who I was and just hurried away.

  Okay. I moved on.

  The city was beautiful. The stonemasons who built it had done a fantastic job since their work seemed brand new. I didn’t see much in the way of impoverished folks, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible they lived or congregated elsewhere.

  I walked in a straight line for about twenty minutes at a brisk pace, taking in the sights and sounds of my surroundings and still wasn’t there. Finally, after almost an hour total of walking the streets and asking directions, I found a large gathering of wanderers on the eastern side of the city.

  —Mona, I’m here, where are you?— I whispered to Mona.

  I watched as a figure in wanderer clothes separated herself from the crowd. I recognized the poof of hair immediately, the proportions were a little off and the body was different, but that was Mona all right. She had kept her green eyes under all that now-tan hair.

  “Hey, Seth,” she greeted me warmly as she crossed the distance easily.

  She was a lion woman, her curved figure more pronounced. Her fur was a light tan, her facial features a perfect mix of lioness and human. Her hair wasn’t a mane per se, but more like a curly mass that hung artfully to the left side of her head. Her sparkling green eyes seemed a bit distressed.

  “We’ve got some issues,” she spoke in a low tone. “We need to find the others
and get somewhere quiet where we can discuss.”

  “Okay.” I joined her in looking for our friends.

  We walked casually through the wanderers, whispering harshly, “Al! Sondra!”

  I bumped into a large slab of flesh. The hulking green-skinned person turned around, their rippling muscles trembling as they did and looked down at me.

  “Hi, sorry—was looking for a friend,” I muttered and tried to get away.

  “You wouldn’t recognize me, would you, Seth?” I looked up at the person—woman—and realized it was Sondra grinning down at me.

  “You’re huge!” I struggled and mouthed other words that made no sense, but she just laughed, a massive hand clapping onto my shoulder in a friendly gesture.

  “Thanks!” She grinned, her tusks flashing slightly.

  Sondra was an orc, but not just any kind of orc. She was buff as hell. Her muscles bulged in ways that would put a female bodybuilder to shame, and she seemed so natural that way. Her skin had a myriad of markings all over it that looked like war paint, and I didn’t dare touch those without permission as they were everywhere. Her storm-gray eyes shone with mirth, and her buzz-cut styled swath of purple hair made me love her style dearly.

  Sondra was our tank. Veteran gamer and lovely person, her tyrannical personality was reserved for our enemies and them alone. We were the only ones who got to see her goofy, fun side.

  “Love the hair, Sondra.” I reached up, and she had to lean down a little from her nearly eight-foot height so that I could run my fingers through without pulling her hair.

  “I knew you would.” She stood back up and looked around. “You found Al yet? I’ve been looking for all of you, but he’s not using his usual name, then again, neither are we since those seem to be frowned upon ‘by the gods.’ You are, though ‘Kyvir.’”

  “Creature of habit sometimes.” I flashed a grin that split my lip once more.

  “Oh, would you please just step aside?” I heard a familiar English accent growling in exasperation.

  Sondra grinned savagely. “Found him.” She waded through people easily and eventually came back, hauling a lanky elf who appeared thoroughly bemused by his current situation.

  “I could have made it out on my own, you know,” the elf said, then harrumphed.

  He was about the same height as my avatar, slim built with sharply pointed ears, his skin was a deep black-brown almost the color of warm umber, and his hair was a shocking white by contrast that was coifed perfectly atop his head in a shorter style. His glimmering blue eyes observed his surroundings quickly before settling on me.

  This was Allen, our healer who swore up and down that healing was a game within a game, and that was the only role he cared to play. And he was amazing at it.

  “Seth.” He nodded once.

  “Al.” I tried to look demure, but I ended up grinning like a little kid on Christmas. “How awesome has this game been so far?!”

  “Very, but there are… complications,” Al muttered as he looked around before finding what he had hoped to see. “That alleyway, let’s go.”

  We turned and headed that way, I whispered to Mona to let her know what was going on, and she found us easily enough.

  “We have a problem,” Mona started, her arms crossed.

  “Indeed,” Al echoed. “First of all, I would like to be the first to say, this has been absolutely mind-blowing, and I am truly in love with this world so far.”

  “It is pretty awesome.” Sondra smiled and nodded. “But the issues being… annoying? Not good.”

  “Let me guess, each of you got a gift from so far out of left field; it felt like a different league was playing?” I asked. The others looked confused, so I blurted, “I have no magic. I’m resistant to it by fifty percent, but that’s it so far.”

  “It seems our personalities and biometric readings have decided against us, I will begin.” Al huffed. “My gift is for fire magic. I’m level two and have one spell so far. It’s like a Fire Dart, wait, that’s the name itself.”

  So, our healer was a DPS now. Cool. Cool, cool.

  Mona cleared her throat. “My magic is Presence-based, and it’s called Allure.” Her face was beet red. She didn’t embarrass easily. So, this was going to be hard.

  “I have a healing totem.” Sondra cut to the chase. We stared at her, and she just blinked in return.

  “So, all of us are basically the opposite of what we would normally choose.” I reasoned. “And we’re stuck with these gifts until we can figure out how to grow them, or change them, hoping that they evolve. So, these are likely basic, but there could be more down the road, right?”

  “Seth’s right.” Sondra shook out her arms and stretched. “All we can do is move forward. We have a few days until we start streaming. I say we get our heads wrapped around our new roles, and we can put a spin on it. Worst comes to worst; people get to make fun of us for not knowing our new roles.”

  “Okay, that’s doable, though more than a little irritating.” Mona sighed.

  “How does Allure work?” I watched her cheeks flush slightly, her whiskers flicking slightly in what looked like annoyance.

  “It attracts attention and can distract a subject of my choosing,” she explained. “It’ll be difficult to get used to that kind of attention, but I guess it would be a gateway to our secondary DPS role. And it looks like our resident mage is going to be our acting tank.”

  “Fun times, that.” I snorted. “We need a quest.”

  “I’ll share the one I was able to get before that mob crowded the board. Turns out that the eastern side of the city is considered the newb zone. Everything outside the city into the plains is meant to be lower level and easier for us to handle.”

  Party invite from Albarth Remell, do you accept?

  I selected yes, and then another notification popped up.

  QUEST SHARED – Gather pelts from wild sheep in the plains. Amount 15. Reward: 30 EXP, and access to starter clothes.

  “Great thinking, Al, by the way, we should really stick to in-game names for now. Call me Kyvir.” I eyed the crowd that was beginning to disperse a little.

  Sondra flashed a grin. “Sundar Strongtusk.”

  “Albarth Remell.” Al held himself a little prouder having said the name.

  “Monami, and don’t worry guys—we can do this.” With a look of determination, she turned and walked away. Her tail flicked behind her. I didn’t know if she was controlling it or not, but that was such a cool additive to the game that just set it even further apart from anything before it.

  As we walked, Sundar decided to give me a crash course on tanking.

  “Take the hits, get the hate—keep it—and you should be fine. I’ll keep you healed up.” She patted my shoulder. “You got weapons?”

  “Sword, shield, and glaive, yourself?” I watched her reach her arm into the nothingness that was her inventory and pull out a sizable club made of wood that could have been a tree limb pulled straight off the trunk.

  “You know I’m more of an intimate fighter.” She winked suggestively, and I coughed. Sondra had this effect on me. She might be the eldest of us by a few years, and the most experienced, but by god, she was the worst. Her changing her name didn’t mean her lewd teasing would change.

  “How about you two?” I asked. Albarth simply shook his head and waggled his fingers. Monami reached into her inventory and pulled a common quality dagger out and flashed it.

  Different kinds of wanderers had taken a tried and true form of gaming to heart by going out into the fields populated by dozens of sheep in close proximity to each other where they could try their new powers and fight it out. Good idea for some, I saw several throwing all kinds of interesting magics. Small fireballs, water hardened into ice, piercing the wooly sides of sheep. Some other people used weapons like clubs, maces, and other things to minimal effect, but it was still good to see. The area grew steadily more crowded, and the flashes of magic I kept getting glimmers of made my head throb
fiercely and my eyes close as a reaction.

  We walked well past where the other groups might wander into our hunting grounds, where the wild sheep dotted the plains a little more sparsely. There was nothing as far as the eye could see, except what maybe looked like green clouds off in the distance to the southeast of us a little. Opposite that, these plains that seemed to go on forever. The sun had risen into morning light by now, and the sheep seemed only slightly perturbed by our presence.

  “How do we want to do this?” I eyed the sheep, knowing damn well they had no intention of being easy prey.

  “Standard pulling tactics,” Albarth explained. “Since you’re no longer the caster here, and I doubt these things will take a hostile status, we will have to lure them. Monami, that’s where your ability will come in handy. You will pull it close enough to distract it while the rest of us get into position to take it down. Got it?”

  Al’s plans were usually pretty spot on. As the healer, he was able to watch us more effectively than we could and help us pool our talents where they were needed. We all nodded and set to work.

  Monami slowly made her way forward toward the closest sheep and began to exude a slightly pinkish aura.

  “You guys see that?” The sheep turned and trotted toward her as if she were a long-lost owner and friend.

  “How easily she lured that thing? Yeah. That was perfectly done. Now get ready.” Sundar snorted, getting her club ready.

  I sighed and drew my shitty sword and equipped my shield just to be safe. I would be tanking—didn’t mean I needed to be dumb about it.

  Lvl 2 Sheep – Friendly

  Once she was in the center of us, the pink glow dying from around her, Monami rushed forward with us as we fell on the level two sheep.

  1 dmg dealt

  8 dmg dealt

  4 dmg dealt

  4 EXP

  The eight had come from a flaming dart hitting the poor creature in the eye, it bleated miserably after that.

  It fell when our orcish healer brained it as hard as she could with her club.

  It felt like a betrayal that the creature had been friendly when we killed it, but that was the nature of some things. The lowered experience was expected too, though four for a level two enemy was a little rough on leveling progression. Granted, a four-man party was siphoning the experience that might otherwise be easily obtained solo, but we preferred it this way.