I did feel a tingling sensation rising from my chest, but whether that was induced by the game or my growing annoyance with this performance was not entirely clear.
“I feel it,” I said, playing along. “What is this power, Tabetha?”
“A spark of the arcane, hun. We are no mage, nor paladin in touch with the divine. But we scavengers have our own sort of magic. Some call it luck, but it’s magic for sure. Just enough to allow us to forge our way where others can’t, to bend materials to our will where even master craftsmen cannot. That magic within you allows you to work metal without a forge, cut wood without a bench, mold clay without a turntable. Can you feel it?”
The tingling built to a crescendo within me, bursting forth from my body in a small shower of sparks, much like a level up.
You have unlocked the core skills of your class!
Breakdown – Rank 1
So long as you have the right tools, your scavenger instincts will take you further. Breaking down an item will award component parts from the tier of materials that are below the level of the item being broken down.
Cost: 5% of mana
You have unlocked Crafting!
Note: With so many professions to hand, scavenger players have their professions all consolidated into one single crafting panel. This replaces the regular professions tab in your character information. All items from all professions can be viewed there and filtered by attributes, such as the gear slot, stat priority, purpose of item etc.
Crafting – Rank 1
With the right materials and tools to hand, you can produce almost any item. And scavengers can’t be choosy. Crafting an item will award experience equal to 5% of the experience that would be gained from killing a mob of the same level and power. Experience linked to the item’s profession tree remains the same.
Cost: 10% of mana
I couldn’t help but beam. With these two skills, my racial traits, and the experience I’d gain from crafting over and over, I’d conquer this economy. Maybe I’d make a dent in my college debts, after all. But I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. I was but level 3.
First things first, I needed to make this iron dagger. Both Breakdown and Crafting were abilities, so they should work like any other. I focused on the shield, thought ‘Breakdown’, and the ability took effect.
Somehow, the steps I needed to take became clear in my mind without fully understanding them. I took out the hammer and began bashing at the steel holding the shield together. My mana bar drained by 5% and arcane sparks flew as I worked, faster than a regular human ever could. With an almighty bash, I removed the boss, leaving only the rounded wood. I placed the hammer back into my inventory and drew out the saw, carving away at the remnants of the shield floating before me. Within seconds, it was reduced to strips. A flash of blue radiated from my hands, and then the pieces of the broken shield vanished. In their stead, I found several items had entered my inventory.
Iron Ore x 3
Wood x 1
It didn’t seem like very much wood considering how much I’d cut away just there. But this wasn’t exactly reality. In gaming terms, it made perfect sense to me that destroying a more powerful item would reduce it to more basic parts, and not a lot of them. It would be all about quantity.
“That was fun,” Tabetha said. “You might even be a natural. Now, for the dagger.” She handed me a strip of leather. “You’ll need this too.”
I placed the leather in my inventory and then thought Crafting. Finally, I got a menu. It was quite a long menu, with large headers for weapons, equipment, consumables and materials. Sure enough, I could search within this enormous collection, much like browsing the web, or place a filter on so that I could only see epic items or items I had the materials for. I searched for ‘iron dagger’ and the myriad of items condensed into just one. Clicking on it showed me the ingredients that I’d need to make it; unsurprisingly, these happened to be exactly what I had in my inventory.
Recipe – Iron Dagger
Intelligence Required: 15
Associated Profession: Blacksmithing
Iron ore x 3
Wood x 1
Leather strip x 1
Required Tools: Hammer
Seeing the Intelligence requirement, I understood why Tabetha had given me the potion. My understanding of the games’ profession system was that each profession was linked to a ‘core stat’, which was necessary in order to craft better items from that tree. If your core stat was sufficiently high and you had the materials, you could craft the item. Most items still had level requirements, so you couldn’t completely cheese the game by wearing gear way that was beyond you. And with each item you crafted, you gained experience points in that profession tree. Ranking up a profession wasn’t needed to unlock higher items – although the most powerful recipes had to be acquired through special events, quests or raid bosses – but gaining levels in your profession made you more proficient in it. For example, a rank 10 leatherworker wouldn’t need as many materials to craft items as a rank 2 leatherworker. You would be able to make items inherently more powerful at higher ranks, customize their appearance and even completely custom craft an item from the stats up, or so Frostbyte would have us believe. But you would have to be a very, very high rank to reach those heights.
In the here and now, the text of ‘iron dagger’ was colored in green, as I had the materials and Intelligence sat that were required. I did the only thing I could and selected the option to make the iron dagger.
Just as before, when I broke down the shield, my avatar began working at an inhuman speed, infusing magic through my hands as my mana bar drained by 10%. A faint blue outline of an anvil appeared before me and I began to hammer at the heated iron ore until it very much looked like a dagger. The wood fitted over the thinner end to form the grip and the leather wrapped around the wood to make it softer on the hand. More sparks of magic flew and the job was done.
Success! Iron Dagger level 2 created!
+3 Crafting EXP
+25 Blacksmithing EXP
Sure enough, my experience bar moved up an infinitesimal amount.
Experience: 126/1400
I stood holding the dagger I’d just made, feeling a sense of triumph and a strange swell of achievement.
Tabetha beamed at me. “Nice work. Now you know the basics, you can skedaddle on outta here and start beating lumps out of the stuff you pick up along the road.”
“Is there anything else you can teach me?”
“Not yet, hun. Come see me again when you’ve had a bit more experience out there on your own. Oh,” she said, stretching out her hands expectantly. “I’ll be having my tools back.”
“Of course,” I said. I handed them over without issue. What was I going to do against a level 20? Now our little encounter was over, the quest notification popped up, informing me I’d completed ‘Baby’s First Dagger’ and had received 200 experience as a reward.
Just as Tabetha turned to head back to her shelter, a thought occurred to me.
“Do you have any other tools I might have or buy? More basic ones?”
She turned around slowly. “I was hoping you’d ask. Yes, I have a few spares for sale and I could use the coin to buy some new shoes.” I now looked down at her feet and saw that her toes were visible. What a strange lady. If the other scavenger NPCs in the game were this kooky it would either be hellishly fun or it would get real old real quick.
“I’ll give you a good price,” she said with a wink, then indicated that I should step over to the tool rack. The items I could actually buy suddenly brightened to draw my attention to them, and text also appeared above each one, indicating both their name and price tag.
She only had the basics but it would be more than enough to get started with. I selected a skinning knife, a hammer, a handsaw, a needle for thread, knitting needles and a pair of scissors. The latter three items were most of what I’d need to work cloth, and given I’d found a fair amount from the kobolds that woul
d be something I could start on.
“That’ll be eleven ten and eighty copper in total,” said Tabetha. My human racial to get a 10% discount on items was even applied to her spoken calculations. Impressive. She even feigned a look of surprise when I handed the money over without question. She bit down on each coin and seemed satisfied. Was that a glint of greed I saw in her eye? Had I just been played for a higher price? Perhaps us scavs were similar in nature, after all. More likely, there was an in-game bartering system that I was yet to unlock.
“Can I give you some more advice?” Tabetha said.
“I won’t turn it down,” I said, wondering where this was heading.
“You’ll come across all kinds of stuff on your travels, so much stuff that your bags are going to get full really fast. By the looks of you, you’ve not got much in the way of extra baggage space. I have a few extra bags spare too, if you’re interested?”
That piqued my interest. I had five bag slots much like a slot on my character’s body for gloves or a helmet. Hundred Kingdoms let you progress through inventory space as well, making you start off with a single bag and allowing you to find, craft or buy more as you go. The better the bag, the more slots it would contribute to my overall inventory space. All new characters began with a 20 slot bag. Even now, with all the cloth I’d looted – the kobold basher, lantern, those mushrooms from the boss chest, and now my new tools – that space was already limited.
I met Tabetha’s eye and cocked one eyebrow. “What you got?”
She went to rummage in a pile beneath the rack and pulled out two rough spun pouches that looked like miniature versions of Santa’s present sack; one yellow and one green. Each one had 8 slots and each was worth 10 silver. For 20 silver I could nearly double my inventory space right now.
I bit my lip. Increasing my inventory space would be great in the long run but the extra silver might help get me off the ground at the auction house. It was half my earnings from the deal I’d made wit– well, forced upon Wylder, and I’d already spent money on the tools. But as I gained more tools, I would absolutely need more bag space. Plus, the allure of gain was too tempting to resist. Not every scavenger would have this advantage when they began their characters.
“Tabetha, you have yourself a deal.”
We exchanged goods – I playing 18 silver due to my discount - and I hastened to equip the bags. I opened my inventory afterwards and marveled at the sudden swell in space. All those new slots, just waiting to be filled. I felt a rush, just the same as a level up.
“Much obliged,” Tabetha said. “Off you go now. There’s more to see in the wide world than little ol’ me.”
I didn’t need telling twice.
8
Leaving the junkyard, I felt exhilarated and, to be honest, a little overwhelmed. The multiple professions system was cool but it was a ton to take in. I also had stat points to allocate and an inventory to sort out. Maybe I would be able to craft some more given what I’d found in the Rusking Woods.
I decided to take time out to go sit inside the local tavern, the Pale Keg, and get to grips with it all. Yes, I was hoping to progress as quickly as possible but understanding what my class was capable of seemed a vital component in that plan.
It was also rather pleasant inside the tavern, with a roaring fire, the gentle chatter of NPC patrons and light music from the fiddlers in the corner. The bartenders would also be an easy vendor to offload items on, seeing as no other shop was open in the evening.
I even ordered a mug of ale for a few coppers. You could get drunk inside Hundred Kingdoms. The headset would start screwing with sensory data in-game; make you wobble as you walked, blur your vision, have you heave digital vomit on the streets and get thrown into a cell to sleep it off. That sort of thing. Of course, if you were to log out in the middle of your drunken stupor, you’d wake up sober. It was all an illusion played on you by the VR headset, but it felt real. I’d seen a couple of streamers try it out for fun. One drink wasn’t going to do that to me, well, at least not an ale from the starting area.
I found a quiet table and enjoyed the atmosphere of the tavern from afar. I’d been rushing before and had nearly made a fatal mistake in the kobold camp. I’d also dicked over Wylder which still sat uneasily with me. The look of disgust on his face seemed to be imprinted on my mind, as bitter as the low-level ale I was currently sipping. Those other players had given me similar looks too. And I’d been left alone. Isolated.
I’d often retreated online in the early days because I’d felt lonely in the real world, but then my behavior began to do that for me. Early on I’d made friends, formed a guild, and loved every second of it. Then, those friends began to fade away, some headed to college, some to work, others just decided they’d had enough. They said they’d had enough of the game but maybe it had been because of me?
If you think what I did to Wylder was unsavory, you’ve lived a sheltered gaming life. I vividly remember one incident with my old guild, when I screamed at some younger kid until he was trembling before me. I’d done it right in front of the whole guild, and all because he’d screwed up in a boss fight we’d been wiping on all night long. All I remember is entering this rage and abusing him until he logged off. He never logged back in. Most likely, I’d tarnished his views on MMOs for life, and all I got was angrier because I had to find another healer to replace him with.
I guess I have a competitive side that rears its ugly head sometimes when I play. You’ve seen me in the real world, I’m hardly the toughest son of a bitch out there. A slight stutter and less than strapping stature don’t equal crazy confidence. And maybe that was just it. Inside these games, I’d always been able to be so much more than that. In here, I didn’t feel afraid of things, because nothing could really hurt me.
A group of players entered the tavern and moved neatly to the bartender. After some hurried words, each of them glowed and sparked as they gained a level up from handing in some quest. Seeing them progress snapped me out of whatever daze I’d been in since leaving Tabetha’s junkyard and I took stock of my inventory.
Aside from the tools I’d just purchased and the equipped kobold basher, I had the following.
Linen cloth x 14
Cloth scraps x 78
Iron dagger
Brittle dirk
Grimy lantern
MadCapper Mushroom x 26
Spotted Toadstool x 16
Bruised Bloomershroom x 13
My total wealth was now at 26 silver and 87 copper, and 26 of my 36 bag slots were free. I would vendor the iron dagger and the brittle dirk. Both were worse than my mace and I wouldn’t be dual wielding during the night-time as I needed to hold the lantern to see by. My mace skill had increased already so I might as well keep it up. As for the mushrooms, I’d have to do a quick search of the auction house later to check if they would be worth anything.
Taking up the most space was the basic cloth, which was stacked in groups of 20 pieces. Full cloth, such as the linen I had, stacked in groups of 10 in the inventory. Once I converted the scraps into linen, I’d have even fewer free inventory slots. It really was a good thing I’d bought some more space and I’d likely need to upgrade my bags as often as I could to ensure that I had enough space for materials. It’s never fun to have to drop items because you have no more space; it’s like throwing gold into the wind.
I pulled up my Crafting menu again and navigated to tailoring this time. I found everything was in red text. Investigating further, I realized my error. I required fifteen points in Intelligence to perform basic Crafting and the potion of minor intellect that Tabetha had given me had long since worn off.
Changing gears, I closed the Crafting window and opened my character profile, basking in all his low-level glory.
Character
Zoran Human Scavenger Level 3
Attributes - Points to Distribute: 6
Constitution 12 – Intelligence 14 – Reflexes 11 – Might 10 – Willpower 11
Combat
Health 145 – Mana 165 – Attack Power 21 – Spell Power 27 – Regen 1.4 p/s
I noticed I had acquired further points in some of my attributes already. Something from the character creation process jumped back to the front of my mind: ‘all players will receive +3 Stat points to distribute themselves each level along with another +3 Stat points pre-determined by their class.’ So, it looked like the game had put points into my Constitution, Reflexes, Willpower, and especially Intelligence, for me. My Might remained where it had started at 10. Scavengers clearly weren’t supposed to fight.
It wasn’t a totally customizable system, but I liked it. Classes would reach the endgame with a solid foundation of stats, while still allowing players the choice to lean heavily on some personal playstyle by assigning additional points themselves. As my base Intelligence had already increased by 4, it was now blindingly obvious that it was my most valued stat. By focusing on it, I could get a clearer description of what it did for me.
Intelligence
Increases mana pool (+10 mana per point), spell critical chance and spell power.
I wasn’t aware that scavengers received any spells like a mage would, so everything had to hinge around the Crafting component. As Intelligence was more of a core stat for every profession, I’d want to stack it heavily to make better items. As I had to put at least one point into Intelligence to create basic recipes from Crafting, I went ahead and spent one point there, raising the stat to 15.
I held off allocating my remaining 5 points. Every one of them would count early on and I had to make sure I wasn’t wasteful.
Battle Spire Page 8