The Curse of Hurlig Ridge_World Tree Online_1st Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  Entering the townhall with the ongoing conversation still jabbering on I went straight to the Mayor’s office door and knocked.

  Homer emerged a minute later. “Welcome back, Bye-bye, how can I help you?”

  “We have returned with the last of the stolen goods. Thought you might want to know,” I answered.

  “Excellent, well done, all of you,” said Homer gratefully.

  Quest Alert: Bandit Round-up (Recommended Level 4-6) - Completed

  Mayor Simper has tasked you with eliminating the bandits ambushing local merchants going to and from the World Tree portal and recover any of the stolen goods or money.

  Reward: +500-Experience, 5% of recovered goods to be paid in 5 days hence

  I hadn’t been paying much attention to my experience totals, so I was surprised when I saw the next announcement.

  Congratulations! You’ve reached Level 6!

  +1 to bonus Holy Spells, +1 Intellect, +1 Charisma

  I hadn’t been paying much attention to my stats, except to make sure I capped them with every level. But now I was level 6. I passed the level 5 threshold. Now my stats would gain experience differently. Some would grow quicker than others, but because of my unique class, I would need to spend time training all of them. I pulled up my character screen to see where I was with all my gear boosts.

  Level:

  6

  Experience:

  2.29%

  Class:

  Novice Warrior Priest of Issara

  HP (Health Points):

  1250/1250

  MP (Mana Points):

  860/860

  SP (Stamina Points):

  690/690

  Strength:

  50

  - Melee Damage Modifier

  +50

  Dexterity:

  55

  - Melee Critical Strike Chance

  5.50%

  - Hit Chance

  62.75%

  - Dodge Chance

  5.50%

  Endurance:

  125

  Stamina:

  69

  Intellect:

  86

  - Spell Critical Strike Chance

  8.60%

  Wisdom:

  55

  Charisma:

  79

  Health Regeneration per minute:

  63

  Mana Regeneration per minute:

  28

  Stamina Regeneration per minute:

  39

  Holy Spell Damage Bonus:

  58

  Holy Spell Healing Bonus:

  38

  Carrying Capacity in Lbs.:

  250

  All told, I was in a good place for the start of level 6. I had the skills necessary to train my stats due to ‘Acrobatics’ and ‘Meditation’. I would have to test ‘Acrobatics’ to see how well it did, but ‘Meditation’ would be a last resort just because of the time constraints.

  “Hey, congrats on level 6, mate,” said Olaf, clapping me on the back and nearly planting me in the floor. “You’re officially over-leveled for this province.”

  I shrugged nonchalantly. I didn’t care if I was above the recommended level, I still had things to do in this province and I had no intention of leaving until I was satisfied. I had told my friends as much a few times.

  “Back to the grind you go,” joked Micaela.

  Why? Just why did she have to remind me? Much as I accepted the necessity of the evil that was grinding, I didn’t much care for it. In point of fact, I hate grinding.

  “Yeah, yeah, Jack got a level, what’s next?” asked Rose, quickly moving the subject away from me. While I know she did it in an effort to tease me, I was actually grateful for it. No matter how comfortable I may have gotten in dealing with an audience, I still didn’t enjoy it.

  “Hunting down the lion?” asked Micaela excitedly.

  “Nope,” I said with a small grin, happy for her enthusiasm. While it was a good idea, there was no rush for it. We could do it tomorrow when we had more time. “I want a crack at breaking into Lieutenant Graves home.”

  “If that’s the case, I’m overdue to start training to become a professional Engineer with Giggle-Ana and Mic needs to buckle down and work on becoming a professional Builder. You good on your own?” Olaf explained and asked.

  “Of course, I can’t imagine running into too much trouble with the man fleeing the town. How about you two?” I asked looking toward Rose and Baby.

  “I am going to work on my professions too. But to do that, I need to get more herbs, and with this new handy dandy bag, I can carry a whole lot of herbs,” said the happily floating fairy. “So, I will be venturing outside town to do a bit of herb harvesting.”

  “I was thinking about becoming a professional ‘Enchanter’ but you have to learn writing first,” replied Rose.

  “Writing is pretty easy. Just go to ‘Ned’s Sundry’, buy a blank book and something to write with. Then you just start writing whatever you want, and you should get writing pretty quickly. Just a word of warning, as soon as you hit level 10, make sure you stop and go learn the evolution. Any levels past 10 will be reset back to 10 when you evolve it to ‘Enchantment’,” I volunteered.

  “Then I guess I know where I’m going, see you all later,” said Rose, leaving with Baby to manage their business.

  I wanted to ask her about her second profession, but she was gone so quickly, I didn’t get a chance to ask.

  After a few more farewells, I was on my own again. The mayor had been kind enough to mark Graves’s home on my map for me earlier, so finding it wasn’t difficult.

  The man’s home was a larger than most of those surrounding it and didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the town. It was two stories, painted gray with black trim and a blood red door, a creepy blood-red door. I had to ask myself, how no one in town figured this guy for evil from the start?

  Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary as I approached. The porch extended the entire length of the house and the single deck chair looked unused. I tried to peek inside the windows, but the curtains were all drawn shut.

  I went to the door and gave the doorknob a little jiggle to see if it was unlocked. It wasn’t. I took out my lock picking tools and dropped to a knee to put the lock to eye level. I inserted my picks and immediately heard an odd clicking sound and a little snigger of laughter just behind me.

  I barely turned to look for the source of the laughter, when suddenly there was no porch below me and I was falling. My first thought was I would be falling toward a pit filled with spikes so when I splashed into liquid I was relieved. That relief quickly vanished, as I realized I’d just fallen into a pit of acid, rapidly and painfully devoured me.

  Acid Pit Trap does 25-damage to you with ‘Acid Burn’.

  Acid Pit Trap has murdered you. You will be automatically transported and revived at the nearest graveyard.

  Well, that was horrible, what a slow and painful death. Okay, so not too painful, maybe equal to a constant sunburn or standing too close to a bonfire, painful, but not unmanageable. Still, to take so many ticks of -25-HP until it slowly killed me should be considered torture, something strictly forbidden in this game. I’d have to complain about it later.

  It turned out I was wrong about my earlier belief, that nothing could take away my good mood. My return to Graves’s home was made with each stride taken in anger. This time I didn’t bother with the trying to pick the lock, I just kicked in the door and jumped through. I looked behind me to see the trap door slowly closing.

  I ‘hmphed in triumph then stood. I looked around briefly before I felt a strange breeze blow past me. A moment later, my head rolled backward, disconnected from my body before my vision went black again.

  Decapitator 3000 does 1,250-damage to you with ‘Decapitation’.

  Decapitator 3000 has murdered you. You will be automatically transported and revived at the nearest graveyard.

  The line of explicative statements follow
ing my resurrection could have made an orc blush. For a guy who wants to hunt down hidden treasures and has made a list of skills that will probably be necessary, I was being really dumb about this. I think I was angrier with myself now than I was with the traps or even Graves. I should have figured the man would have booby-trapped his home.

  “Calm down, Bye-bye,” I voiced to myself. I needed to be smarter about this. The home is trapped. I need to learn more about traps. Thankfully I have just the book to do it. I was tempted to sit on the singular unused deck chair in front of Graves’s home, but with the recent run of bad luck with traps, the chair would undoubtedly kill me. It would probably end up being a mimic and eating me whole.

  Instead, I returned to the Inn, beaten by the house, but not defeated. I would re-arm and try again soon enough.

  I sat in my favorite chair by the fire, ordered some lunch from Trish and cracked open ‘Trapology’.

  I barely started reading, when Trish dropped off a sandwich for me. I set my book aside and ate. It was probably good I did, as, by the time I finished eating, I had calmed down considerably.

  Calmer now, I reopened the booked and began to read. The book was broken into two halves. The first half was all about trap construction which covered building rudimentary traps and snares. It was mostly focused on the triggers to set traps off, it also had a small section on trap placement. The second half, which ended up being the half I was interested in, was all about trap disarmament. It built off the first half portion concerning triggers but disarming them instead of arming them. It also had a small section about how to spot traps and finding the hidden triggers. I was surprisingly intrigued by the subject. It also went into a bunch of details from ancient traps to modern traps, even touching briefly on magical traps which were so much more complicated as well as significantly more dangerous.

  I was so engrossed in the book, that when I closed it after reading the last page, I was surprised to see Olaf and Micaela sitting on the couch and Baby and Rose sitting on the other two chairs similar to mine. They each had a drink in their hands and were happily chatting. I was shocked they had arrived and I hadn’t taken note of it. I also felt guilty, I was worried I’d been ignoring them. I also took note of music playing in the background, something I don’t remember occurring before now.

  “All done then?” asked Olaf. “I hope we didn’t distract you. One of the guards mentioned he saw you coming from the graveyard a few times today, looking mighty unhappy.”

  “No, I didn’t even know you guys were here already,” I answered quickly. “I hope I didn’t ignore you, I was deep into the book.”

  “Nah, you’re fine Jack. We were having a nice talk all about you too. Who knows when I’ll next get dirt on you from Micaela,” Rose replied, a wicked grin on her face.

  I felt my eyes narrow, first at Rose, then at Micaela. Any guilt I may have felt for ignoring them quickly vanished.

  “What happened to you anyway?” asked Baby.

  “Acid Pit Trap and the Decapitator 3000,” I answered Baby, she was just too cute to ignore or be mad at.

  Rose choked on her beer, then once she cleared her throat cackled in laughter. “Decapitator 3000, for real?”

  “Yes, and let me tell you, it works quite well,” I said frostily. My hand subconsciously rubbing my throat.

  “Blimey mate, bad luck that is,” said Olaf, rubbing his own throat.

  “Was that the trap book you were reading then?” asked Baby.

  “Yeah, it was. It was actually an interesting read too,” I added.

  “So, did you learn any skills from it?” asked Micaela.

  “Let me check,” I said, opening my system messages to be greeted by a wall of text.

  You’ve learned the skill ‘Trap’ and subskills ‘Create Snare’, ‘Create Spike Trap’ & ‘Disarm Trap’

  Trap

  Level: 1

  Experience: 0.00%

  Skill Effect (Passive): Knowledge and understanding of traps.

  Subskill: Create Snare

  Skill Effect (20 Stamina + Materials): Allows for the construction of a basic trap to catch small game. Chance to capture 25%

  Subskill: Create Spike Trap

  Skill Effect (20 Stamina + Materials): Allows for the creation of a basic trap to wound and slow. Damage 5-10 Chance to Slow 20%

  Subskill: Disarm Trap

  Skill Effect (20+ Stamina + Tools): Enables you to disarm a trap, more complex traps will require more Stamina.

  You’ve learned ‘Perception’ subskill ‘Spot Trap’

  Perception

  Level: 9

  Experience: 44.21%

  Skill Range: 10.90 yards

  Chance to See: 12.25%

  Chance to Identify/Track: 14.50%

  Subskill: Beast Tracking

  Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see animal tracks to better hunt them.

  Subskill: Humanoid Tracking

  Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to track humanoids.

  Subskill: Eye for Detail

  Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see details that would be missed otherwise.

  Subskill: Spot Trap

  Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see hidden traps.

  In addition to all of that, I was informed I had gained +3-Intellect and +2-Wisdom from reading the book, as well as 2 levels to ‘Lore’. Checking the clock, it took me about three hours to gain those 5-points, where it would have taken me 5-hours if I had just used ‘Meditation’. So, reading was still the faster method of gaining skill points, at least for now. That could always change in the future, but for now, I was pleased with it.

  I whistled in appreciation for the gains and shared them with my friends.

  “I got next,” said Olaf before anyone else could lay claim to it. I tossed the book to him.

  “Just let the mayor know, I don’t want him to come after me for it,” I said.

  “Will, do. I’m actually looking forward to reading this one. Giggle-Ana even said this book would be big for me with engineering. She said I would be able to build traps that would go to waste if I didn’t know how to use them,” explained Olaf.

  “Did you finish a book last night?” asked Baby.

  “Yeah, I turned in ‘The Greater Outdoors’ this morning,” I answered.

  “Which I’ve got right here,” said Rose, removing the book from her inventory and showing Baby. “I’ll let you read it when I’m done.”

  Baby pouted but didn’t fight it.

  “What’s the plan for tomorrow?” asked Micaela.

  “Training in the morning, Lion in the afternoon?” I half stated, half asked.

  “I’m in,” said Rose.

  “Works for us,” said Olaf, answering for himself and his wife.

  “I suppose I’ll have to keep you all alive,” added Baby, trying to sound reluctant, but failing spectacularly. That babyface of hers would forever prevent anyone from taking her seriously.

  “Okay, so we have a plan. Now, there is something more serious I want to talk to all of you about,” started Olaf.

  “Sure,” I replied without hesitating.

  Rose studied Olaf for a moment before setting down her beer and focusing on him. It gave me the idea, I should set mine down as well, while Baby set down her tiny mug too.

  “Go ahead, babe, we’re all listening,” said Micaela, encouraging her husband to speak.

  Olaf cleared his throat nervously. “So, I know I’ve mentioned a few times, I want us to form an Order. You all sounded receptive to the idea, but I wanted to discuss it with you all in more detail. Now, I won’t be offended if you're not interested and were just being nice about it before, but I’m serious about this. So, if you’re not interested, please let me know now. I don’t want to put in the money and effort if you’re not truly interested.” He paused here to give each of us a measured look except for Micaela.

  “I can’t say for sure,” answered Rose. “I’m interested, but I’m not signing up for any
thing until I read the fine print. Also, don’t take this the wrong way, but I hardly know you. We’ve only known each other for a few days, not much to build the kind of trust I would want in guildmates.”

  “That’s perfectly fair,” replied Olaf. “I appreciate the honesty too. And you’re right, we don’t know each other that well yet, but I think we’ve built enough trust to at least discuss this. I hope you’ll stick around with us long enough to build more trust.”

  “I’m with my sister,” said Baby, not needing to elaborate further. Where her sister went so too did she.

  “Bye-bye?” he asked, specifically looking at me.

  I had truthfully been on the fence with the idea of creating an Order in the game or even joining one. I didn’t want to be beholden to an Order if they ever went to war with another Order. I didn’t want to be taxed on anything I earned, in addition to the taxes Seed Inc already levied in the game, in addition to the taxes I’d pay to the government for any money I earned while playing.

  But it wasn’t all bad either. I did like the idea that I would have a group of people I could call on to help me when I found something too difficult for me to manage on my own. I felt it wouldn’t be so bad, if Olaf, a person I considered a friend, would be running it. And most importantly, I loved this group, even with Rose, despite the constant verbal sparring or maybe because of it. If every one of us joined, it was a solid start to an Order.

  Rose might be . . . difficult to work with sometimes, but she was already proving to be a capable tank and she was a rare class. Baby was all kinds of awesome cuteness and OP heals, her magic would only get stronger. Micaela was a shaman and seemed to be a good one from what I could tell, her totems seemed powerful too and would only get more so. And Olaf would be ridiculously powerful as a damage dealer, his hand-cannons were already stupid powerful and would only get more so as he improved them and his ammo with his engineering.