World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  “That’s good to know, but I was more interest in how much of an investment you would need?” I asked.

  “For a chimera, let me think. Ten ballistae at about 75-Gold each, plus ammo for another 25-Gold per ballista, that’s what, a thousand gold. It wouldn’t be a very long hunt given we have the perfect bait, but still, food for a few days at least, maybe another hundred gold. Need at least fifty Hunters, twenty just to man the ballista. So, 5-Gold per day per hunter plus a 5-Gold signing bonus and 10-Gold completion bonus. A specialize mage could be as much as 100-Gold alone, expensive ruddy wizards,” Twill mumbled as he thought out loud and wrote down numbers on a piece of paper. “Let us say 1,600-Gold total, including a little extra for incidentals.”

  “Done,” I said, ready to pay the man.

  “What do you mean ‘done’?” Twill asked.

  “I mean done as in, I’ll pay for it,” I said.

  “And you have sixteen hundred Gold laying around?” Twill asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered. I actually had a lot more than that, not that it really mattered or that he needed to know that. From the sound of it, if we succeeded, I would make that much back and more.

  Twill motioned for me to follow him over to his desk. “Show me the money,” he said.

  It took about twenty minutes to put the stacks of coins on the Hunter’s desk. “And you understand, the hunt might fail?” Twill asked.

  Quest Alert: Chimera Hunt (Recommended Level 25-30)

  The hunt is on. A chimera has appeared in the Endless Savanna. When such a rare creature appears, Hunters and Craftsmen are eager to obtain the very valuable materials that can be harvested upon its death. Hunt down this creature and reap your rewards.

  Reward: Experience, Collectible Trophy, 50% of Crafting Materials Harvested

  Do you accept this Quest?

  Yes

  No

  “I understand,” I said, accepting the quest happily.

  “Well, you have yourself a deal,” Twill said, offering me a hand to shake.

  I shook the offered hand. “When can we go?”

  “It will take about a week to a week and a half to get the ballistae, another half a week to a week to get my Hunters trained up on them. I would say, as soon as I am confident my Hunters can manage the ballistae, we could get underway,” Twill answered.

  “Two and a half weeks, then,” I said. It was cutting it close on our logout time, but still manageable.

  “I’m going to die a lot, aren’t I?” Olaf asked, looking at me pathetically.

  “Sorry, man,” I said, cringing. Two and a half weeks was a long time for that chimera to hunt and kill Olaf.

  “Not your fault,” Olaf said.

  “I will get the Hunters moving right away,” Twill promised.

  “Great, now, let’s talk grootslang,” I said with a wide grin. I wasn’t going to sit around for weeks waiting to hunt the chimera. I still had things I needed to get done.

  “What about it?” Twill replied, looking at me seriously. His previous excitement at hunting the chimera gone.

  “You said it would take a few weeks due to the specialize equipment to hunt the chimera. What would it take to hunt a grootslang?” I asked.

  “Why do you want to hunt a grootslang?” Twill asked, his serious demeanor not fading in the slightest.

  “I need the Diamond Heart of one,” I answered, not wanting to give too much away.

  “To what end?” Twill continued to press.

  “Marie needs it to complete a blacksmithing project,” I said, hoping that would be enough. Marie spent most of her days taking advantage of the Hunter’s Union’s smithy. I assumed he saw her around enough to know the caliber of her blacksmithing skills.

  “What blacksmithing project is she working on that requires a diamond as big as she is?” Twill asked.

  “As big as she is?” I asked. I was confused. I tried to picture my spear with a diamond the size of Marie and all I could picture was my spear ending up with some massive tip like something out of an old anime. “Just how big is a Diamond Heart?” I asked.

  “A Diamond Heart is about the size of an adult Dwarf. Very valuable, very rare, and nearly impossible to obtain,” Twill answered then asked, “What could she possibly need a gem that large for?”

  “Maybe we should just go ask her,” Olaf suggested, drawing the attention of both Twill and me.

  “That is probably a good idea,” I said.

  The three of us crossed the short distance from the central tent to the crafting area. Sooty and Loral were spreading out another piece of leather on one of the stretchers though I couldn’t tell what animal the leather came from. They waved, we waved, but nobody stopped to talk.

  We found Marie inside the small smithy, banging away on a piece of red-hot metal. Not ten feet away from her was the Dwarf I had seen that first day we visited the camp. The Dwarf was standing with his arms crossed, glaring at Marie, his nostrils flaring in agitation with each hammer strike.

  “Hey Marie,” I said after mentally reminding myself to call her by that name.

  “Bye-bye, Olaf, good to see you lads. Need something?” Marie asked as she continued to hammer at the metal ingot, slowly flattening it on the broad surface of the anvil then turning it on its side and hammering it again, causing the ingot to elongate.

  “Marie, that diamond for your project,” I started, hoping she understood what I meant.

  “Aye, what about it?” Marie asked, not slowing her work at all.

  “How big does it need to be?” I asked.

  “Oh, fist sized should be fine. I can resize it from there,” Marie answered.

  I looked to Twill who was now rubbing his chin in thought. “A juvenile then, alright, let us go speak in my office and leave the smiths to their work.”

  “Thanks, Marie. See you at dinner,” I said in farewell.

  “Is Micaela still trying to perfect that meal?” Marie asked before we could go.

  “Yeah,” I answered. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one tired of eating the same thing.

  “I may stay here for dinner tonight,” Marie stated. “Yes, I think that is what I will do.”

  “Oh, come on, Sooty promised to tell us about the Goddess Nótt and the first chimera,” I tried to tempt her, suffering loves company.

  “If I have to suffer through it, then so do you,” Olaf added, not letting Marie off the hook.

  “Fine, fine, I will be there,” Marie said, sighing in disappointment, not that I blamed her. “Now off with you both, I have work to do before dinner.”

  Marie ushered us out with a wave of her hammer, not relinquishing her spot at the anvil. I thought I saw a small look of hope on the other smith’s face for a moment, but it vanished just as quickly. I was getting the impression that Marie had been monopolizing the forge.

  Back in the Huntmaster’s tent, we sat at the large table and waited as Twill served us tea before sitting down himself. “Okay, straight to business then,” Twill said. “Hunting a juvenile grootslang is a reasonable request. Just to give you an idea, if you wanted to go after a mature grootslang, you would need at least a thousand Hunters level 50 and up, preferably two thousand. And things like ballistae would be the least of the expenses for the necessary equipment, add catapults and oil, magically enhanced ropes to try to tie it down, anyway, lots of extra equipment at a very high price. You would also need dozens of shield mages and dozens more healers and that is just the support staff. Long story short, that kind of endeavor is usually financed by kingdoms, two or three hundred thousand Gold. Understand?”

  Olaf and I nodded. I swallowed thickly, just trying to imagine the size of such an event. We had hundreds of soldiers when we took Anvilton and that seemed like so many. What kind of monster required thousands to take down?

  “Anyway, for a juvenile, maybe twenty Hunters plus your group. Its four days to their caves, probably take a day, maybe two, to lure a juvenile and four days back. Do not need any specialized equipmen
t, which makes things easier. So, let us say 1,000-Gold,” Twill said.

  “Alright, when can we leave?” I asked. “Just one thing, I’ll need to make a trip to the bank to get the funds. Will that delay you in getting started?”

  “I will need a few days to get a few specialized Hunters here and you already paid for the chimera hunt so I suppose I can get you started on credit this time,” Twill said. “Come back in four days with the money in hand or I am going to be forced to cancel your hunt, probably charge you a small penalty and need to withhold the chimera hunt until we are square.”

  Quest Alert: Grootslang (Recommended Level 25-30)

  The hunt is on. Grootslang are a known danger of the Endless Savanna. An expedition is being formed to hunt and kill one of these World Class monsters. Hunters and craftsmen are always eager to obtain the very valuable materials that can be harvested upon the death of one of these monsters. Hunt down this creature and reap your rewards.

  Reward: Experience, Collectible Trophy, 50% of Crafting Materials Harvested

  Do you accept this Quest?

  Yes

  No

  “That’s fair,” I said, accepting the quest. I would hate to lose that money, but I knew well enough that a trip to the bank and back wasn’t going to be an issue. I could run to Root City in a day, it only took two days to reach the Bazaar the first time because of the wagon. So, a day there, then a day back, the trial was in three days and we could leave on the grootslang hunt the day after that. Things were lining up perfectly.

  “Alright, once again, I will get things moving on my end. You boys be safe heading home, especially you Olaf,” Twill said, showing a slightly mischievous grin with his last statement.

  Thankfully, the walk back to our camp was chimera free, though that did nothing to stop Olaf from watching the sky, his hand twitching toward one of his hand-cannons every time he saw a shadow in a cloud, despite it being a mostly cloudless sky. I was of the opinion, that if the chimera was going to attack, it would use the sun at its back. I think Sooty agreed when he shared a look with me and pointed to the sun then Olaf and laughed. Loral and Marie both chose to roll their eyes.

  Back at camp, my other friends were mostly sitting around the fire and chatting except for Micaela who was cooking. I really hoped she got the hang of this meal sooner rather than later.

  “Alright, Sooty, story time,” Olaf coaxed the Dwarf.

  “Right, right, you want to hear the legend of the chimera,” Sooty said, leaning back and lighting a pipe, puffing a few times until his tobacco or whatever it was, glowed orange. The pipe and smoking were relatively new habits as far as I knew. “So, the Goddess Nótt, the Goddess of the Night and Darkness, rode upon her noble steed, Hrimfaxi. Her domain was the night sky, she acted as the herald of Mani, God of the Moon. In the war of the Gods so long ago, several Fallen Gods banded together and knocked her from her steed. Hrimfaxi, loyal and noble, tried his best to save her. But they were both outnumbered and overpowered. Hrimfaxi was slain by the Fallen Gods, hoping to make the Goddess Nótt fall as well. But the Goddess Nótt was a wise old woman, she was Odin’s grandmother you know. Anyway, she knew what they were attempting. She saw through their plans and hatched one of her own. The Goddess Nótt brought into being a brother of Hrimfaxi, a twin, created from her raven black hair, just as Hrimfaxi was originally. She took hold of Hrimfaxi’s essence before it could pass on to the next realm and bound it to his newly formed brother. A brother whose essence was not fully formed. Legend says, the Hrimfaxi’s and his brother formed something new, something dark and twisted, a chimera. Formed from the champion of a Goddess made it powerful beyond compare. This chimera was one capable of fighting and killing even the Gods. Those Fallen Gods fought the chimera and died, though legend says they were able to mortally wound such a beast. When the Fallen Gods were defeated and the Goddess Nótt tried to calm her champion, it turned on her next. Both Goddess and chimera were weakened from fighting the Fallen Gods, both died by the other’s hand.”

  It was a good story but didn’t really tell me anything that would help with our chimera problem.

  “Do you think Chaos learned from the Goddess how to do it?” Micaela asked, sending an unpleasant shudder down my spine. It had been several days since I last thought about It.

  “Do you think that might be the case, Bye-bye?” Olaf asked, looking to me.

  My original thoughts were that the Slavers had something to do with Chaos in the province. But . . . as angry as It was with me, I wouldn’t have put it past It to throw in this twist just to spite me. Which also meant there could be more than one Chaos related issue going on here. That got me wondering if the Goddess Nótt had really died or if she hadn’t indeed fallen after being forced to kill her new creation. Could she have created this chimera in an attempt to fix her past mistake. “Possibly,” I said after giving it a minute of consideration. I was unwilling to give a definitive statement either way.

  After that, conversations broke down and my friends settled back. Rose returned to our tent first, stating she had more enchanting to do if she ever wanted to finish her armor.

  “Titan,” I said, sitting down next to the very high-level teddy bear looking player.

  “Bye-bye, how’s it going?” Titan asked.

  “Pretty good,” I answered. “We haven’t talked much lately, I wanted to see how things were going with you?”

  “Pretty good, my Charisma is already up to 298 but I don’t think it will go any higher in this province,” Titan replied. “People seem to open up and offer me quests at this point without much effort. I never knew there were so many quests . . . so, so many quests,” he stressed

  I laughed at the expression on his face. It was a mixture of horror at all the missed opportunities and disbelief.

  “Seeing as that well had dried up on you, what do you plan to do next? Will you be leaving us?” I asked.

  “No, I’m,” Titan started and paused, his eyes wandered over to Baby who was chatting animatedly with Micaela. “I’m having a really good time with Babs. I know my sponsors well enough to know they won’t give me another break like this for a while. I’m going to make the best of it. As to what I’m going to do next. Probably start on those tutorials we talked about.”

  I smiled. Titan wasn’t such a bad guy.

  “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask for a while, but how do you run dungeons?” I asked.

  “I don’t,” Titan answered. “Well, I’m sure I could find a way, but there is no one in my level range to party with. Let alone party with to run a dungeon.”

  “But if you did, how would Perses fit? I know you said the portals enlarge for him, but I can’t imagine a dungeon would,” I said.

  “I would probably just go on foot, I have a crossbow and I can do pretty good damage at my skill level with it,” Titan answered.

  “Couldn’t you just get a second mount? And what is your skill level with the crossbow?” I asked, curious.

  Titan shrugged. “I have no idea about getting a second mount, it would probably be a good idea to look for an attack mount of some kind in addition to Perses. My ‘Heavy Crossbow’ skill is Rank X.”

  The mount thing puzzled me. I would have thought that him being some kind of Beast Tamer class would have meant he’d be able to have a pack of beasts to fight with him, all of them capable of being ridden into battle. Then again, I knew nothing about his class. As for his ‘Heavy Crossbow’ skill, that was impressive. “You really should find someone to train you on your class. And your weapon skill would be even more impressive with some class skills to go with it. What are your subskills like?” I asked.

  “I have ‘Aimed Shot’ which increases damage, critical strike chance, and critical strike damage. The only downside is the long cast time. ‘Quick Shot’ lets me reload faster after my shot but reduces my hit chance,” Titan said.

  I looked at him waiting for more, but nothing came. “Wait, that’s it? Two subskills?” I asked.

  �
�Yeah, haven’t really needed more than that,” Titan said.

  “Baby,” I called across the campfire where Micaela and she were chatting.

  “What did Titan do now?” Baby asked, sagging her shoulders.

  “Find him a trainer for his class and his weapon tomorrow. If his Charisma isn’t getting any better than that, it might be the best use of his time,” I answered.

  Baby lifted an eyebrow on her childlike face, though it was directed more toward Titan than me.

  Titan though just shrugged.

  “This is the kind of stuff you should be covering in your tutorials,” I said. “Skill and subskills matter. Understanding your class and what you can do with it matters. It’s not just about bringing your stats up and finding quests. Have you learned any passive skills to help with your accuracy or boost your Dexterity?”

  “No,” Titan answered, looking rather sheepish.

  I sighed, trying to keep calm. It seemed like every time I spoke with Titan about gameplay he said or did something to really annoy me with his lack of knowledge. It was becoming more and more clear to me that level means nothing in this game, except to say that someone has the potential to gain stats. It doesn’t guarantee they will actually be as strong as their level.

  “How did you ever figure out to tame a world boss in Fervent Fantasy Online?” I asked.

  “FFO was a known quantity back then. Almost everything was figured out by other players by the time I figured out just how good the Bermisi taming bonus really was. If Babs hadn’t told me just how cute she thought my avatar was at just the right time, I might have gone with something else. Anyway, with Baby’s input, I decided to try the Beast Lord class despite the lack of agility and power of the race. It was hard to level up like that. I remember when I was level 7, just after I learned the ‘Bond Beast’ skill. I had a Selurian Tiger and we were questing in the Chobarina Forest when I ran across ‘The Wrecker’, that zone’s area boss. The stupid gorilla was about eight levels higher than I was. It killed my tiger in two hits. I knew I was going to die so I threw caution to the wind. I cast ‘Beast Trance’, getting lucky it worked and stunning it for a few seconds. It wouldn’t have given me enough time to run away so, once again throwing caution to the wind, I cast my ‘Beast Bond’ spell. I fully expected to get the all too familiar ‘Your level is not high enough to Bond with this Beast’ warning. Instead, I found myself and the Wrecker in the bonding temple. After that, I started experimenting. I figured out I could bond with a beast up to twenty levels above my own. Sure, it was stupidly dangerous to even get close to a monster that many levels above me, and I might have died more often than I succeeded, but it was so worth it. I was able to power level that avatar to the maximum level in a month thanks to my very overpowered pet. Then I did something really stupid, I went after ‘Sir Reginald’, the bear world boss from the Zakalian Mountains. Man, I couldn’t believe it when I tamed that bear. Its ravenous bite and powerful claw smash were ridiculously overpowered,” Titan explained.