by Rick Scar
He went in the back, and came out two minutes later, holding a small book in his hand.
“In this catalogue you will find what you’re looking for. Here you go,” without letting go of the book, when Will grabbed the other end of it, he added, “Hope you remember how to read.”
“Thank you,” said Will, containing his rage. “Alright, let’s see. Warrior, Monk, Druid, Vampire… Ah! Here it is, Rogue. Wow, there are so many skills, and each costs a fortune! All I need is Stealth now…”
The young man was muttering, as he followed the lines with his finger, “Bingo!”
“Skill Book: Invisibility.
Active skill (Apprentice).
Makes you invisible. The effect ends if you are attacked.
Energy required: 20
Duration: 30 seconds
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Class requirements: Rogue, Thief, Ghost Demon.”
“What do they want for it?” muttered Will again, “One and a half gold!? It’s insane! It shouldn’t cost that much!”
Seeing how one gold coin was worth a hundred silver coins, and one silver coin, in turn, was equal to a hundred copper coins, Will’s frustration was understandable. He knew that a skill like that in any other game would cost six copper coins tops! He read way too many guides for various classes to have any doubts here—this skill is essential to his class. He was looking angrily at the book before him, because his hopes had come to nothing.
“What kind of loan shark Floor is this?” sighed Will sorrowfully.
Having gathered the information, and what remotely resembled a weapon, he headed back to the warehouse.
Chapter 5. Patience is the name of the game
There he was, staring at it. No, it was no rat, it was a monster! Five feet tall, hollow eyes with purple haze glowing around them, dagger-like fangs, yellow ribs sticking through its rotten flesh—the scene was as frightening as it was disgusting. That thing was definitely not a low level monster, which meant Will was not on a lower Floor. +10000 XP seemed appropriate for this kind of abomination, but fighting it with bare hands, having no skills or armor, seemed rather stupid.
“Unique gaming experience, my rear end,” thought Will, “It must have something to do with that error…”
He could have asked administrators to have him sent to a lower Floor, or he could try and hack it out here on his own keeping in mind that “…a player being level 1 could kill a level 50 or level 100 enemy.”
He examined the room and the monster in it through the opened door.
“Cursed Rat: level 46.
Health: 5100.”
“How is this possible?! I’ll be poking it with my toothpick for a week! Maybe I just make enough money to buy a bow, running simpler errands, then take a higher ground, where it can never get to me and attack? Maybe search for an exploit? Except I won’t be able to do this from inside—this thing’s aggro range must be around 50 feet, which is the distance from the center to the door. Stealth won’t help either. I’d better go see if there are windows in this warehouse.”
RAVen went around the building, but it was useless—the warehouse was windowless.
“That would be too easy,” said he, and went back to the entrance to take another look at what was going on inside. This time, he noticed an unusual construction under the ceiling near the back wall. It looked like a room, but he couldn’t understand why someone would build a room with no doors or stairs leading to it in such a weird place. The roof could be the only place leading inside that room…
Will knew that if monsters this tough were in the village, going outside the village was just reckless. So, instead of wasting his time, he thought he would do what all newbies that can’t grind mobs do—become an errand boy. But first…
The carpenter’s ladder built in a hurry didn’t seem sturdy at all. Nonetheless, Will thought he would give it a try—the fall wasn’t going to be lethal anyway. He spent twenty minutes atop of twenty three foot high warehouse looking for a hatch, but could find nothing. Seeing no other options, he decided to stick with the plan.
This was incredibly hard, RAVen was exhausted. He was doing small quests for ten hours, and that got him only twenty four silver. He was definitely on the wrong Floor. Based on simple logic—the higher the Floor, the tougher the monsters—he figured he was on the seventh or eighth Floor. Thus, the first three Floors must have had monsters below level 30; the fourth, fifth, and sixth Floors would have been crawling with monsters below level 65 or so. This was, of course, a rough assumption, but there was no way to know for sure.
Will felt like taking a break and grabbing something to eat. He opened the capsule door and rubbed his temples. Then he got out, and went to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. While eating, he checked forums to see if anyone had posted anything interesting, but nothing worth reading came up. When he opened his email box, there was a message from Pak.
“Sup, Will! Hope you’re already playing the Ascension, just like the rest of the world. Have you seen those trailers? Anyway, just wanted to let you know that our entire clan has moved from the Gates of Darkness to Ascension, so, if you’re interested, join us. We are the SoulCrushers. Talk soon.”
Will felt he was lucky to be friends with such a guy. Pak was a good person—trustworthy, open, and sincere. He was a weirdo, but no sell out.
This was where it struck him. He could get skill books via the in-game mail system! Since it could be used to communicate between the Floors, Will could make arrangements with Pak and get stuff from him on the cheap.
“Hey, Terror =D. Thanks for the invitation, but I was going to play solo, if you recall. I’ll let you know if I’m up to something big. My nickname is White RAVen. Which Floor is your clan on, by the way?”
Will hit send and looked at the clock. It was nine in the evening, and he thought it was early enough to play a little more. In the following three hours, he made ten silver coins, after which he logged off and went to bed. The regimen was important, and he didn’t want to go too hard on himself.
“Tomorrow is another day, maybe it won’t seem so bad tomorrow,” thought Will.
He could not be more wrong…
Getting paid in peanuts for cleaning backyards, working the land, delivering mail, searching for lost cats (or dogs, or hares, or bears), keeping an eye on someone’s cattle, picking fruits, helping an old lady (or a boy, or a blacksmith, or every single one of them) was insanely difficult! This adaptive virtual reality was full of those small quests. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it, and that someone was keeping his eyes on the prize.
Will was in the middle of yet another moral strength test—helping a hunter to skin animal carcasses—when he got a message,
“Player Light Terror sent you a friend request.”
Confirm.
Another message followed, “Wow! Is this name super cool or what! I love it!
We are based on the second Floor right now, but we have branches on the first and third Floors. Which one are you on?”
Will was hesitant to reveal the whole truth regarding his whereabouts,
“Glad you liked it. I’m on the third right now. Listen, I have a favor to ask. Do you guys have any skill books for the Rogue I could buy? I need Stealth and some other active skills. I’d be grateful if you could send me a couple. I’m really low on cash though, but I’ll pay you back as soon as I can. I always pay my debts, you can rely on that.”
He sent the message and continued his work. Twenty minutes later, three books came in the mail: one for Stealth, one for another active skill, and the third for a passive skill.
“Well, that was fast!”
“Skill Book: Underhand Blow.
Active skill (Apprentice).
Damage dealt to the target off-guard is increased by 20%.
Energy required: 30
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Class requirements: Rogue.”
“Skill Book: Gunman.
Passive skill (App
rentice).
Increased firearm mastery level.
+2 Fire rate
+2 Fire range
+1 Level neglect when using firearms
Class requirements: none.”
Will learned the skills and read the message that came with the books,
“Here, these set me back two silver. It ain’t cheap, but consider it a gift. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Two silver?! For crying out loud, what Floor am I on?” thought Will, “I can get everything I need at reasonable prices from Pak now, can’t I?”
He wrote Pak right back asking him to get a crossbow, a dagger, and some other goods under thirty silver. Having sent the money (including what he owed for the books), Will had ten more coins left.
“I thought you said you were low on cash, and that you were playing solo. Where did you get this money? Did you find buried treasure or something? I made only six silver and forty three copper coins in the last thirty six hours! What the hell?! Our dudes on the third are going all out trying to make some coin too. Either way, can’t say anything about the weapons, the clan doesn’t have that, we’re just starting out, but I’ll see what they have in stores. What exactly are you looking for?”
“Preferably, something without class limitations. I really need that crossbow and a couple dozen quivers with bolts, magic enhanced, if possible. As for the rest, I need class specific stuff with good damage dealing capacity. If you can find cheap potions, that’d be great too. Thanks!”
Somehow, Will felt better—everything seemed not as bad. All that was left to do was to find a way to kill that monster rat. Considering the level difference, he was bound to get handsomely rewarded.
The young man was almost done with his last assignment, when a message popped up.
“Level Up!”
This was very gratifying. Only one thing was clear to Will from doing all this hard work—you couldn’t get a lot of XP for it. The most what he got for a single quest was 21XP, and he had to have 300XP to get level 2.
“You worked hard for the good of Skiavra villagers. Their attitude toward you has improved.
Current attitude status: 32/100 (Neutral)”
Leveling up was automatically upgrading a class specific Attribute—+1 Agility for Rogues, +1 Wisdom for Mages, +1 Strength for Warriors, and so on.
Having distributed the points, Will looked at the skills he could learn.
“You learned a new skill.
Picklock. Passive skill (Apprentice).
You can pick simple locks.”
He logged off to grab a bite. Ten minutes later, he was back in the game doing menial work quest. In an hour or so, a message came,
“This is all I could find. See if it works for you, and if it does, I’ll buy it. Oh, and you can forget about the potions—the cheapest ones are, like, two gold a vial.”
“Dreadnought’s Crossbow (Bronze).
Damage: 12-16
Attack range: 108 feet
-9% Chance to miss
+4% Chance to stun the target with the last bolt, when burst shooting (4 bolts at once)
Class requirements: none
Other requirements: none.”
It came with six quivers with standard bolts (thousand pieces each), five with +2 holy magic extra damage, three with +2 fire damage, and one with +1 light damage, all for the price of three silver and six copper; nine silver and eighteen copper together with the crossbow.
“Red Eye Ring (Bronze).
+3% Accuracy
+1 Dodge
Class requirements: Hunter, Rogue, Stalker.
Other requirements: none.”
- One silver and twenty one copper.
“Gale Greaves (Bronze).
+2 Speed
+3% Chance to dodge unexpected attack.
Class requirements: none
Other requirements: none.”
- Two silver.
“Vagrant Jacket (Bronze).
+5% Stealth
+3 Dodge
+1% Chance to find rare item when looting chests.
Enter Ambush Mode faster when in the shadows.
Class requirements: Rogue.
Other requirements: none.”
- Ten silver and fifty copper.
“Not bad for my level. These would cost a fortune in this location. I’d have to buy the same crossbow for at least three gold coins here!”
Will gave Pak the go-ahead and sent two more coins for his trouble. He also asked to keep him posted in case more skill books he might be interested in would turn up.
The answer (with the items attached) came when Will was about to log off,
“I gotcha. Thanks for the tips. I don’t know what that hustle deal you got going is, but it’s not normal. Yeah, I’ll keep you posted.”
Equip all. Log off.
Chapter 6. Try this for a vantage point
Will had a good night sleep. Healthy breakfast and a quick morning workout—a habit, he picked up in the army—to start a new day. Then, he stood for a while before the capsule, and went out for a walk, to think over the warehouse problem. Clear sky and fresh air did not make him feel any better about it,
“Kill the rat, kill the rat. How do I kill the damn rat?”
Fallen leaves were dancing in the wind; the rising sun was painting people and the nearby buildings bright. He passed by neat, mowed lawns and the kids playing in the street in front of a two storey house with quirky roofing and a car parked outside. Will made a couple more steps, and stopped dead in his tracks. Something clicked in his mind, and he looked over his shoulder at the house.
“That’s it! Why didn’t I think of that sooner?! I’ve got to get back!”
He rushed back home and jumped straight into the capsule. Moments later he was trying to catch his breath, as he was pacing back and forth around the warehouse.
“Come on, where are you?” he kept repeating. He was looking for an attic window of some sort, much like the one he saw under the roof of that house. It could be closed, which is why he didn’t notice it the first time. RAVen was staring at the back wall of the warehouse, but couldn’t see anything. Then, he grabbed the ladder and climbed up to look closer. Just like he suspected, it was right there! No wonder he couldn’t see it from the ground—it was sealed tight.
“Your keen eye for details let you find the way.
+5% Luck.”
Luck was one of those things that could not be upgraded with points. Finding stashes, discovering secret places and such was needed to improve it. The more Luck you had, the more chances there were to find unique or epic items. Will read about this on the game’s web site. The developers commented on this simply, “…keep your eyes out.”
RAVen stuck the blade of his sword into a small gap between what looked like some sort of shutters. Then he stopped for a moment, as if he remembered something. A little effort… and voila, it gave in. He crawled in through the window and found himself in a small dark room.
“Congratulations! You discovered a hideout!
+5 Influence Points
+0.5% Luck.”
“Finally! My persistence pays off.”
When his eyes adapted, he looked around. It was an empty thirty foot square room with a lonely chest standing in the corner.
“There better be something good in it,” said Will and stepped closer to it. A whiff of decay blew in his face, “What the…”
That turned out to be the rotten clothes covering someone’s remains he didn’t notice at first. Will didn’t freak out, he knew it was just a game. Poor guy’s empty eye sockets were staring at Will.
“Dead men tell no tales, I guess.”
RAVen examined the body thoroughly. There was a simple looking ring hanging loosely on the skeleton’s left hand phalanx bone. The other hand was clutching a piece of paper. Nothing else was to be found. He took off the ring carefully.
“Twilight Ring (Diamond).
Only the true light dispels the darkness.
Worn by the adepts of the Shadow Order.
+14 Physical resistance
+9 Strength
+23 Agility
Skills: Twilight Walker (Active).
Allows a player to stay invisible and undetected when in the shadows. When the skill is activated a player is invulnerable to physical attacks.
Duration: 2 minutes
Cooldown: 90 seconds
Class requirements: none
Other requirements: none.”
This ring was a unique item, and could be easily sold at an auction for fifty gold, at least. But Will was no fool to sell such rarity.
Every character was allowed to wear three rings on each hand (in addition to the inventory ring), various necklaces and amulets, and had seven inventory slots for accessories.
RAVen tried the ring on, and felt he made the right choice staying on this Floor. Then, he unclenched the skeleton’s fist and took out the note it was holding, trying not to tear it. The text was written in blood and partly smudged. RAVen moved closer to the window to see if he could read it, but it was written in a language he didn’t know.
“Last Will.
You’ve located the remains of a shadow adept. His last wishes remained unheard. Find someone who can help you read the note, and return his remains to the head of the Shadow Order.
Reward: ???
Accept? Yes/No.”
“Sure, why not! Perhaps, not today, but I will get out of this village one day. Now, the chest!” Will picked up the remains, and turned to the chest.
“Chest (Silver).
Unlocked.”
“Two for two! I’m on the roll! It’s a little scary.” Inside, RAVen found only two things: a compass, and a piece of map. The map was old, but readable—a bunch of arrows and a circle drawn around a small town in the middle of the Alvian Mountains.
“You’ve found a map leading to the Shadow Order. Be careful not to lose the way, they don’t call it Shadow Order for nothing. Only the chosen few can get there.”