Battle Spire

by Michael R. Miller

  Cute or not, however, I had a quest to fulfil.

  I raised my dirk and pounced, driving the dull blade as best I could into the kobold’s back.

  Brittle Dirk hits! 15 piercing damage (+30 Sneak Attack Bonus!)

  The kobold squealed, dropped the mushrooms it had been eating and scrambled to draw its wooden club. A coating of blood lined my dagger, but the kobold darted around as though unphased. That’s VR Gaming for you. Occasionally a bit of realism gets dropped. If you wanted to properly cripple an enemy, you better use the right spell, ability or item that will cause them to move slower or burst out in boils or whatever.

  I jabbed again at the kobold and scored a much weaker hit, but my combined blows had brought its health down from 80 to 25.

  The kobold swung its club at me and my lowly level 1 avatar couldn’t avoid the blow; although I did manage to stick my dirk into its chest at the same time. It recoiled from my stab and I struck again before it could raise its club. My enemy’s health flashed, disappeared, and the mob died.

  Kobold level 1 dies – 50 EXP

  Quest – Into the Woods

  Slay kobolds 1/15

  Ah, the rush of a first kill in a new game. Is there a sweeter nectar? Well, aside from the bags of cash that I’d hopefully start making.

  Checking my health bar, I found the little savage had managed to club 25 points of my health away from that single hit. Damn, I was weak. My health would replenish at my Regen p/s rate but only while I was out of combat. I’d have to be careful in fights and wait to recharge more often than I’d like. At least, until I got a bit stronger or found some better gear.

  Something new had appeared on my user interface as well. A faint golden bar that ran the full length of my vision below my health and mana, labeled ‘experience’. I took a closer look and the gold brightened and solidified until gleaming.

  Experience 50/400

  So, seven more kills and I’d reach level two. Given that my Scavenge ability granted some extra exp, I’d have a little boost along the way. Now seemed a good time to try it out. I got to my knees by the fallen kobold and first checked to see if I could first loot it. A small box marked ‘loot’ appeared over its body and I tapped it with my hand. A new window popped up, showing what items the kobold had dropped.

  Just three copper coins. Nothing terribly exciting but all avalanches start with the first trickling snowflakes. Every coin I gained now would aid me towards my goal once I reached the markets of Argatha.

  Still kneeling, I thought clearly in my mind, ‘Scavenge.’ My character then began an animated performance over the length of the kobold’s body, first patting it down and then checking in pockets on its patchwork coat that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to access. Another loot table appeared.

  Copper coins x 1

  Cloth scraps x 5

  Loot All?

  I tapped on ‘loot all’ and gained the extra material. The extra coin was a welcome bonus. I hadn’t been aware that some extra cash could be scavenged from the ability, but I supposed it made sense. All dead mobs and players in Hundred Kingdoms would remain behind as an in-game corpse, lying where they died for about an hour. Scavengers would be able to loot these corpses during that time. This exp bonus granted to scavengers was designed to make up for the shortfall in their overall power. So, if I was mostly scavenging bodies, rather than looting for real, I might not gain access to coin drops from mobs.

  The cloth scraps were more interesting to me. These were the most basic crafting materials used in the tailoring profession and only available to scavengers by picking up the ‘scraps’ that nobody else wanted. Once I gained access to my professions, I should be able to combine 10 cloth scraps into a full-piece linen cloth. I’m jabbering on a bit by way of explaining that if I could get 100 cloth scraps, I could make a stack of 10 linen cloth and sell it on the auction house. The fact that I just got 5 scraps straightaway made me pretty excited, but my paranoid side kicked in and I reckoned that I may have gotten lucky. Time would tell.

  An experience notification was also still visible at the top of my combat log.

  Scavenged Kobold level 1 – 3 EXP

  As expected, my experience bar had also shifted, now showing I was at 53/400. Five percent of the kobold’s kill was really two and a half experience but it seemed the game rounded up. Handy. Every little would help.

  I still had to continue this quest, with fourteen more kobolds to kill and their presence in the woods to explore. Just as I attempted to squint through the dark to find more enemies, I heard voices.

  “It came this way,” a high, scratchy voice said, much like the kobold I’d just slain. “This way I says. I heards it.” The kobold who was speaking began to imitate the death throes of my recent victim.

  “Whatc’you doin’?” another kobold asked. “Yous be given us away if there’s trouble.”

  There must have been a group of them, and by the sounds of it, they were drawing close. I dashed behind the nearest, thickest tree trunk in the hope of avoiding them but in my haste, I only made more noise.

  “I heard that,” a kobold declared. “We coming for yous.”

  “Whoever yous are.”

  “Maybe it has shroomies?”

  “Shut up,” the leader of the pack squawked.

  Pressed up against the trunk, I risked a glance in their direction. I could see the pack now; well, I could at least see their leader at the front illuminated by the lantern he carried. The glass was cracked and filthy, letting out a dirty light but it was still better than total darkness. From the sounds of their continued babbling, there must have been at least four of them. Too many for me to take on alone.

  Carefully, I began to tip-toe away from the trunk, hoping I could put some distance between myself and the pack and lower the chances of them aggroing onto me. A patrol like this must mean I was fairly close to the camp, so my best shot at another kill would be to find a straggler on the outskirts.

  It wasn’t easy moving through the undergrowth. I stepped directly into a bush and tasted wet leaves in my mouth. Next, I stepped on a twig and snapped it. Wincing, I froze, sure that I’d alerted the patrol to my whereabouts.

  “What’s that?”

  I remained rooted to the spot in fear. I’d rather not die this early and face respawning back in Rusking. At least it wouldn’t be a PvP death where lockouts were in play. At higher levels, death from PvP would cause a lockout for up to an hour, one of the reasons player vs. player combat carried such consequences. It would be hard for guilds to take over and consolidate territory if their enemies kept respawning instantly. On top of that, defeating a player of sufficient challenge to you – meaning no more than two levels below you but any number of levels higher – would award EXP along with one random item of loot that wasn’t soul bound to them. You really had to pick your battles in this game, whether in PvP or against regular enemies.

  “Is nothing boss,” a kobold said.

  It seemed I’d gotten away with it this time.

  Sneak Increased!

  Level 2

  Not bad. Soon you might be able to slip past a deaf old lady. Maybe.

  I breathed easier, only to step onto another twig.

  “Whaaa!” screamed a kobold.

  Thinking the game was up, I twisted around and drew my dirk, as feeble as it was. Perhaps if I got the jump on one of them I could at least score two kills before being bludgeoned to death. Thankfully, my health had fully regenerated now. But the pack wasn’t running in my direction. The lantern carrying leader was standing still, and by the looks of things, was bent over something.

  “He’s dead, boss.”

  “I can sees that, dolt,” the leader said, although he nudged the body with his club for good measure. “Yups. Dead as a squished rabbitty.”

  “What does we do?”

  “Run back to camp, you,” the leader said, poking his club at one of his fellows. “Tell the Big Boss. We’s will stay and look around.”

/>   My delight at the pack thinning by one member was soon dashed when the remaining kobolds started to run in a much more aggressive fashion. No longer on a slow walking patrol, they began fanning out, the lantern of the leader bobbing wildly. They were bloody fast for hunched, oversized weasels, and if I suddenly burst out from my bush, I’d be spotted for sure. Once they aggroed onto me, it would be hard to shake them off.

  This wasn’t the best start at all.

  One of the grunts closed in on my position.

  Gritting my teeth, I waited until the kobold was parallel with me before stepping out behind it and trying for another backstab. I missed. The kobold wheeled around, its black eyes bulging when it saw me.

  “Hoomin!”

  It thumped its club into my stomach and a dull pain throbbed there, although it was far less painful than it would have been in reality. My health dropped by 15 points and I lashed out with my dirk. As I tussled with this level 1 mob, I heard the others running over, shrieking all the while.

  “Nasty hoomin. Kill it.”

  “No take our shrooms!”

  Through luck, I dodged two of my opponent’s attacks or perhaps it missed. Either way, I managed to take this first mob down, though it had come at a serious cost to my health. I was at 40/100 and there were two extra enemies upon me. Now the leader was close enough, I could confirm he was more powerful. A small bar appeared over his head when I looked directly at him.

  Kobold Patrol Leader – Level 3

  Well, shit. There was no way I was winning this one.

  I ran for it, eternally grateful that there was no resource cost associated with running in Hundred Kingdoms. Although, it did mean my speed was capped and the kobolds weren’t far behind me, yelling obscenities in their childishly shrill manner. If I could run for long enough, without taking a hit from them or dealing damage to them, they should eventually reset their aggro. At least, that was how it was done in the VRMMOs I used to play.

  I can’t say how long I’d been running when I started to panic that aggro in this game didn’t play fair. My Night Vision increased to rank 2 but I didn’t dare to check the notification beyond a cursory glance. The skill increase must have allowed me to spot the new bobbing lantern ahead. Another patrol?

  I slid to a stop.

  If it was another kobold patrol, they were heading right for me and there was literally no way I could outrun them.

  My heart pounded in my chest, while my cheeks felt hot and flushed. How had I already messed up so badly? Had six months away from gaming really made me so rusty that I couldn’t do the first quest? Maybe the scavenger really was too weak for solo play, after all. The true embarrassment would shortly come when I died, but in the heat of the moment, I acted on basic fight or flight instinct – only now it was fight.

  I spun to face the first group. Their leader was closest, a good deal ahead of the lowly grunt behind him. Patchy light from the lantern lit his face in a gruesome grin of chipped greyish teeth. It lunged at me.

  “Die, hoomin.”

  I cried out as I lunged forward myself, prepared to meet the leader blow for blow. At the same moment, something twanged loudly behind me and, just as my dirk cut across the leader’s arm, an arrow thunked wetly into its chest. The impact of the shot sent the leader to the ground and I descended upon the creature, stabbing down.

  Kobold Patrol Leader level 3 dies – 30 Assisted EXP

  An assisted kill could only mean one thing, another player had shown up to save my ass. Right on time too. Even as I got to my feet, I could hear another twanging bowstring and an arrow took the remaining grunt kobold in the face. It dropped dead instantly, probably from a huge critical hit.

  I didn’t get any experience from that kill as I hadn’t engaged the mob directly in combat. But no matter. I was alive. I also had a savior to thank and turned to meet them.

  Wylder – Ranger – Level 1

  It seemed that whoever they were, they had opted for a more customized avatar than I had. Wylder was a male human character, about six-three in height with a dull purple scar stretching diagonally across his face, from forehead to jaw. Chest hair akin to the fur of a black bear burst out from his commoner’s green tunic that stretched tightly across his chest. Held steady in his hands was a simple looking crossbow and a quiver of arrows hung at his hip. The lantern he’d been carrying rested at his feet. Put down, I assumed, to enable him to operate the crossbow.

  “You okay there, Zoran?” Wylder asked. He might have been in his early thirties but who can really tell from a voice alone. For all I knew, he’d modded his rig to distort his voice. Maybe he was compensating for something. Maybe he was really a twelve-year-old girl from Brooklyn. How was I to know?

  I patted myself down as if to check for wounds, which felt rather dumb.

  “Ye-yeh, I’m alright. Thanks.”

  “No debuffs or bleeding effects or anything? I’ve got some potions if you need them.”

  “Nah, I’m all good. Thanks again. You saved me there.”

  “Figured I did,” Wylder added, smoothly placing the crossbow into a holster upon his back with a slickness only achievable inside a game. “You really ought to a be in a party as a scavenger, dude.”

  I shrugged. “Wasn’t much of an option for me. But while you’re here—”

  Wylder waved his hand. “Say no more. I’ll give you a hand. You’ll be a good distraction for the kobolds while I fill them with arrows.”

  A rather large notification then filled my screen.

  Wylder invites you to a party.

  Accept?

  I accepted and Wylder’s own health bar, mana bar and a small headshot of his avatar appeared on the left side of my UI; the better to keep track of your teammates during combat.

  “You doing the ‘Into the Woods’ quest too?” I asked.

  “Yep. And the camp is just a little north-west of here. I’ve done this quest before on my main character.”

  “Oh,” I said, genuinely surprised. “You’re leveling an alt already? Have you hit cap on your main?”

  “No way man,” Wylder said with a laughing sigh. “I’ve been leveling a warrior to be a tank for my guild, but goddamn are they slow going at times. Felt like I needed a face-roll toon to blow off some steam between those grind sessions.”

  By face roll, he meant a class that was supposedly so easy to play you could ‘roll your face across a keyboard’ and still win. It was a saying from an era where keyboards and mice were still used but, much like the insult of ‘noob’, it was a term that had stuck throughout the decades.

  Wylder looked me up and down. “Seems you wanted something more hardcore if you picked scavenger.”

  “It seemed unique. Never played anything like it.”

  “Well, unique is one way of putting it,” Wylder said. “Heard of some guys making a nice bit of coin out of it but not much more.” He grabbed the lantern and came over to me. I was still standing by the body of the dead kobold leader. “Let’s loot these guys already and get moving. You might even get an upgrade.”

  “Fingers crossed,” I said, though I wasn’t sure what kind of an upgrade such a low-level mob would drop.

  As we’d both assisted in the kill, we could both loot the leader. Any coins dropped would be split evenly between us but other loot would have to be distributed by the players. I still got three copper coins from the kobold leader for my share and there was a weapon available as well.

  Kobold Basher

  One-Handed Mace

  Item Level 3

  Damage: 5 – 7 bludgeoning

  Durability: 25/25

  “Told ya,” Wylder said. “I remember finding tons of the damned things. You take it, man.”

  I looted the mace and it appeared in my inventory. I replaced the brittle dirk in my right-hand slot with the kobold basher. The dirk’s durability had been falling alarmingly fast anyway and this club looked to be far sturdier, as well as capable of inflicting more pain.

  “You sho
uld just keep using whatever is the best drop, to be honest,” Wylder went on. “Scavengers can—”

  “They can use any weapon type, yeh, I know,” I said. “Except for any stat or specific class restrictions on the weapon, of course. Lore wise, we aren’t fussy with what we wield.”

  “Ah, so you’ve done a bit of research then,” Wylder said. “Some scavs have become known as ninja-looters in dungeons already, so don’t be that guy.”

  By ninja-looters, he meant someone who took loot they didn’t really need and often went on to sell it. I admit the thought had crossed my mind, especially with weapons.

  I opted to evade his comment. “How have you found the weapon skill leveling on your warrior?”

  “It’s decent,” Wylder said. “I’d say you should just use the best weapon available to you while leveling, especially at low levels. Until you get a high weapon skill in something, the benefits won’t be crazy. Better to switch it up than use an underpowered weapon just because your chance of hitting or blocking is a bit higher with it.”

  Out of interest, I went to check on my weapon skills from my character’s profile. So far everything was at rank 1, except for my dagger skill which was at 70% of the way to rank 2. But as Wylder said, there was no point in me clinging onto that crappy dagger just because I was close to a rank up. A few good kobold bashings with this club and my one-handed mace skill would shoot up in no time.

  “Give me a second,” I said, bending down to Scavenge the body. Wylder got what I was doing, so he moved off to loot the other dead kobold which was entirely his kill.

  Scavenging the leader, I received 3 experience points, another copper coin, but only 3 cloth scraps this time. I knew that five had been too good to be the regular Scavenge from a level 1 mob.

  Wylder signaled he was done and I moved over to Scavenge the remaining level 1 kobold corpse. Here was the true taste of the class, grabbing extra bits and pieces from another person’s kill. Sadly, I looted no coins but did gain 3 cloth scraps, bringing my total to 11. I had enough scraps now to combine into a single linen piece, but I had no way of doing this yet. I’d need to unlock the crafting components of the class by leveling and hanging around here wasn’t going to get that done. But with a ranger by my side, the future looked a lot easier.