The Curse of Hurlig Ridge_World Tree Online_1st Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  Which left me, I don’t know how powerful I’ll become in the end, but I was a great tweener class. A tweener class is one that fits somewhere between categories. I can tank a little, I can DPS, and I can heal too, though my ability to deal damage per second (DPS) is probably my strongest specialization.

  I was getting off topic. I had to answer the question, do I really want to join, to help found an Order. No, I don’t. But I want to help my friends and continue to adventure with them, so yes.

  “Yes, I’m in. But, I don’t want any responsibility. I’ll help out with Order quests when I can, but I want to be able to freely explore and find whatever Easter Eggs this game has hidden away,” I stated, I may have taken a little longer to answer, but I felt I had to be clear about my intentions.

  Olaf sagged in relief.

  “Told you he would,” said Micaela with a light laugh.

  “You were right, I was wrong,” said Olaf, looking to his wife. He then looked back at me. “I’m glad you’re willing, and I am perfectly fine with that. That’s exactly what I want you to do anyway.”

  “It sounds as though you’re planning to build this guild around him. Is Jack here truly that valuable?” asked Rose, eyeing me up and down, trying to see what Olaf saw.

  “I hope he is,” said Olaf. “In the short time I’ve known Bye-bye, he’s proven invaluable to me and Micaela. He helped me get my class, something the forums said wasn’t possible until level 30, and only if I remained un-classed. He introduced us to Sergeant Butters and Trinico. Before then, we didn’t know there were any trainers of any kind in this province, beyond a few profession trainers. Then there are all the quests, I’ve never heard of a starting province offering so many quests. I know it’s a risk, but with his track record thus far, I think it’s a risk worth taking.”

  “He’s not wrong, Sis,” said Baby. “Starting provinces are notoriously low on quests. It’s easier in the higher provinces because it’s usually a campaign-style, where you’re reporting to one guy and he starts you on a long quest chain. But even there, the side quests are rare.”

  “I see,” said Rose thoughtfully. “I’ll reserve judgment for now. You’ve got about two weeks left before your first log out right? I’ll be watching.”

  I’m not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  “Anyway, Bye-bye may be a big part of my plans, mostly for making the Order famous. I have more things in mind. I stopped at the townhall after getting my first engineering lesson with Giggle-Ana and picked up this little booklet.” At this, he showed us a small book, less than a hundred pages to it, if my guess was right.

  “This is the ‘Guide to Order’, it goes over all the details of forming an Order and the different types of Orders we can form, as well as some of the benefits,” explained Olaf. “I know what kind of Order I’m leaning towards, but I do want some input, so I’ll try to lay out the options available to us.”

  “First, to form an Order we either need to have a citizen of rank equivalent to Knight, to sponsor us or a player of the same equivalent rank, to form the Order. Right now, I’m ranked an Ensign Ogre Artillery, I need to earn the rank of Captain, I need to rank up twice in my class. However, I’m a Miner Rank IV, which is actually a rank above the Knight equivalent, unfortunately, professional rank limits the choice of Order severely. So, we have options available to us.”

  “Second,” started Olaf, pausing to take a sip of his beer. “If we form an order, we have the option to rent space in Root City for an Order Room, according to this, the room wouldn’t be much bigger than the mayor’s office. We also have the option to build an Order Manor in a province of our choosing.”

  “What’s the difference?” asked Baby curiously.

  “The Order Room is just a room, large enough for a handful of officers to meet and discuss Order business. The forums say, most Order’s just have their favorite bars in Root City and anyone looking to join can find them there. I guess they also have their meetings and such in the bars. The downside, it isn’t private, so people can eavesdrop and share your plans if you aren’t careful. Still, it’s super cheap, just 1-gold per month,” explained the Olaf.

  “The Order Manor is much more complicated. First, you have to have a certain reputation with the province you want to build in, so far, no one has reached such a level,” Olaf continued.

  “How do you know your reputation?” I asked. I don’t remember seeing a reputation menu anywhere.

  “Exactly,” said Olaf. “Moving on. Second, it’s expensive. You have to buy the land for the manor, then you have to pay to build the bloody thing. Third, your Order Manor can be attacked by other Orders, and you are also partly responsible for protecting the town or village, in which you establish your Order Manor. Fourth, and most importantly, Order Manors open up all kind of special guild quests and events, as well as giving you the option to annex the village or town and take over management of it.”

  “They even put in city building?” I asked, slightly astounded. There was nothing about it on the forums.

  “I didn’t know about it either until I read this fellow,” said Olaf, tapping the booklet again. “That’s the gist of how to form an Order. Any questions? Preferences?”

  “I’d love to build a Manor,” said Micaela. “Between our combined mining and my new ‘Construction’ profession the cost of building would be significantly reduced.”

  “I’m not preferential,” I added. And I wasn’t. But then I thought about it, how nice would it be to build an Order Manor here? We know the people, we’ve already befriended most of them. Plus, it would make for one heck of a recruiting tool to have an Order Manor in one of the starter provinces, more so if we advertised on the forums. I imagine it would be easier for us to establish our Order here too because we have the ‘Local Hero’ title already.

  “Hmm,” I hummed thoughtfully at that.

  “What is it?” asked Olaf, I could almost hear the sudden excitement in his voice. “What did you figure out?”

  “Well . . . I don’t know if I figured anything out but . . . well, we’ve already earned the title ‘Local Hero’ here. I would think that would meet whatever reputation criteria there may be.”

  “Pure bloody brilliance,” Olaf nearly shouted. “I’ll talk to the mayor about it tomorrow. See what he says.”

  “What this? What title?” asked Rose, looking askance of us.

  “Remember that raid on the town?” I asked, grinning at the chance to get one up on her. “Those of us who stayed and fought were awarded a hidden quest awarding us the title ‘Local Hero’ and 5-gold. It was pretty awesome.”

  Rose ground her teeth before smirking. That smirk was dangerous and continued to prove as much every time I saw it on her face. “I would have thought ‘Local Zero’ fit you better, but you can’t account for some peoples tastes. Besides, it’s just a title, not like it does anything.”

  My turn to smirk. “Triple’s Charisma in Hurlig Ridge,” I added smugly. “And reduces the costs of goods and services 20%.” I knew the smug grin on my face was mean, but I couldn’t help it. She brought it on herself.

  “Hax,” she grumbled, crossing her arms and sulking in her chair, pretending I was no longer there. Point for me.

  “Anyway, we can worry about that later. I have one more topic to cover. The Order types,” said Olaf, taking control of the conversation back.

  “There are types of Orders?” asked Micaela, perking up.

  “Yeah, yet another surprise from the book. Apparently, there are a few different types of Orders. I’ll start with the two I have rank enough to start. First is an Order of Mercantilism. These Orders get quests focusing on creating trade routes, opening stores or shops, and the buying and selling of goods. They get bonuses to pricing and increased experience for Charisma, Intellect, and Wisdom.”

  That wasn’t too bad at all. Though I had no interest in managing trade routes or a store, the bonus experience was nice.

  “I can also create an Ord
er of Craftsmen, which is for professions. It gives increased experience to all professions and whichever stat is most affected by your profession. So, for me, I use Strength for mining and Dexterity and Intellect for engineering, so I would get bonus experience for those.”

  Also, not bad, but kind of dull. I have an appreciation for crafting armor and weapons, but it’s so much time in front of a forge or cauldron or some other crafting tool, instead of being out there and seeing everything there is to be seen.

  “I’m not interested in either of those,” I said.

  “Me neither,” said Rose.

  “Meh,” said Micaela with a shrug of her shoulders.

  “Yeah, what she said,” said Olaf, nodding to his wife. “I personally find them boring, but I had to bring them up as it is something we could do now. I’d rather wait until one of us hits the equivalent rank of Knight.”

  “How do we rank up?” I asked. There hadn’t been much on the forums about it. In fact, it was hardly mentioned at all.

  “Forums suck,” griped Micaela.

  “Yeah, we don’t know that either. At least not yet. It could be level related. It could be merit-based. Or even a combination of both,” explained Olaf.

  “Okay, what else, I think we all agree we’d rather wait than settle,” said Rose. She seemed much more interested than before.

  “Okay, next is the Order of War, this is a ranked Player versus Player Order,” started Olaf.

  I cut him off immediately. “No, just no.”

  Olaf blinked in surprise at my small outburst. “Okay, that’s off the table.”

  “Awe, but I love PvP,” said Baby pouting for a moment then grinning mischievously. “Said no one ever. I hate PvP. It’s why I picked a race better built for PvE.”

  Player versus Environment or PvE would be the opposite of PvP. This is more you versus the game, than you versus other players. Personally, I was in total agreement with her.

  “While I’m not into PvP, I do find it fun on occasion. I don’t think an Order focused on PvP will make or break me so that’s fine,” added Rose.

  “I’m kind of the same way, Rose,” said Olaf. “But the missus here is more akin to your sister and Bye-bye, so it suits me just fine to eliminate that one.”

  “What’s next?” I asked.

  “Order of Knights,” he started. “This is a royal order, so it has to be approved by one of the Kings or Queens of the various races. You are also then beholden to that King or Queen, you become part of their army. That said, you get significantly more for it. Reduced costs on just about everything. Experience boosts to your primary stats for your class. But its super strict. You are subject to military order, so saluting or bowing depending on your new King or Queen's cultural preferences. Rank within the guild becomes super important too. Now, this is one I would personally prefer to eliminate. I was in the British Army once, I would prefer to never again. Unfortunately, I do recognize this one gives us a ton of benefits.”

  “Yeah, I’m not taking orders,” said Rose, crossing her arms, daring anyone to try.

  I chuckled a little. “I’m gonna pass too.”

  “Thanks, guys,” said Olaf with a friendly smile.

  “Next is the Order of Service. This one might be a good fit for us. This a pretty generic type of Order. It gives increased provincial rewards, meaning quests completed in provinces give more and better rewards. It also makes it easier to obtain quests and side quests specific to the province you’re currently working in.”

  “That doesn’t sound bad at all,” said Baby. “Any experience bonuses?”

  “Only as part of the quest completions. But I imagine many of those quests will give you +1 to a random stat too,” added Olaf.

  “I’m not against this one either,” I said. That would make hunting a province to completion much more worthwhile all the way around.

  “Like I said, I think it could be a good fit for us. It will let Bye-bye hunt his Easter Eggs to his heart’s content, while also giving our members access to quests and leveling opportunities. The only downside I can see, is once we get to the highest levels those extra quests won’t do us much good. It will help us level up new members, but long term could have sustainability problems,” Olaf explained.

  Olaf made a very good point there. While the game had no level cap to speak of, it did have problems with return on investment. Eventually, players will get to a point where it will require thousands of quests and tens of thousands of monster-kills to level, you might only level once every two or three months.

  “It’s still worth considering,” said Baby. “What else have you got?”

  “Okay, next and last up and the one I personally think is the best fit for my plans regarding our Order. The Order of Adventurers. This one doesn’t have much for benefits except for one big one. One, I think, makes it the only logical choice. Adventurer Level Quests. Big, grand quests encompassing multiple provinces, taking months to complete, giving rewards beyond anything else in the game. Now, from what the booklet says, these quests are hard, harder than anything else given by the game, but again, the rewards are commensurate with the difficulty. Not just combat quests, there are crafting, exploration, dungeon and even raid quests,” Olaf finished his pitch.

  If the previous sounded good to me, then this one had me drooling, daydreaming about all the hidden mysteries and adventures there were out there for me to find and explore.

  “That one,” I said excitedly.

  “I thought you might love that one. I like the sound of it myself but it’s risky again. Great in the higher levels but leveling wise probably not as beneficial,” explained Olaf.

  “Can we change the type of Order later? Can we start as an Order of Service then change later to an Order of Adventurers?” asked Baby.

  “Sadly no. You can disband your order, but you lose everything. Any trophies, your Order Manor, any related titles, all of it gone,” explained Olaf.

  “Ouch,” I sympathized. “That would not be cool.”

  “Yeah, so we have to be sure about what we choose to do. I know my vote goes to the Order of Adventurers. So, with me and Bye-bye, that’s 2 votes. Rose? Baby? Mic?”

  “If we choose to join you, I would have to go with the Adventurers, myself,” said Rose. “I know it’s more practical to go with the Order of Service but I’m not here to be practical. I’m here to cut loose and have fun. To go on adventures and see all this world has to offer and more. I can’t do that if I’m always playing it safe. Playing it safe is for out there, in here there is no holding back. Anyway, that’s just my two cents.”

  I found myself slightly in awe of Rose, perhaps for the first time since we met. I saw her as more than just a pretty girl with attitude for days. I looked away before she caught me staring but it left me looking at her in a new light.

  “I am more comfortable with the Order of Service,” said Baby, then she sighed. “But, my sister has a point, a small one, but still. So, Order of Adventurers it is.” Rose playfully glared at her sister for the small dig but laughed a little anyway.

  We all looked at Micaela. “What?” she asked. “As if I wouldn’t agree with my husband. Adventurers we are and adventurers we’ll stay.”

  “Then it’s settled,” said Olaf. “When we go to Root City, I’ll get the last details we need in order. The only thing we had to do now, was earn a class rank equivalent to a Knight.”

  With a plan for the next day in place and our plans for the future outlined, even roughly, we collectively decided to spend the evening socializing, we all needed to boost our Charisma stats, especially me even though I had the highest Charisma stat among us. Gamer greed said I needed more so I could get more quests, after all, it was most likely my high Charisma score, earning us all these quests. I could only imagine what a pure human could do with their Charisma maxed out every level.

  Chapter 26

  I was slow to wake up the next morning and the rooster wasn’t helping my hangover any. Somehow, I managed
to ignore the demon bird and make my way downstairs for breakfast and a pint.

  I found Rose waiting by herself. She beat me and everyone else down to breakfast.

  “Morning,” I greeted her, taking the open chair across from her.

  “Morning,” she grumbled back, she seemed to be more hungover than I was, or she was just unhappy I sat down across from her.

  “How is the writing going?” I asked her, trying to make small talk.

  “Fine, level 5,” she answered in a short, clipped sentence.

  “I found it beneficial myself. I tried journaling, it was cathartic, still is for that matter,” I tried again to engage her in conversation.

  She growled at me.

  I sighed, accepting defeat, I started to stand. “I can see I’m bothering you, I’ll go sit elsewhere.”

  She growled again. “You don’t have to go, I’m just hungover.”

  “I see,” I said, retaking my seat and waiting on breakfast and the hangover cure to arrive.

  Eventually, salvation did arrive, and we settled into a companionable silence as we ate and drank our meals.

  “I’ve been writing Poetry,” said Rose, softly, a hint of blush on her face.

  “Nice, I didn’t know you liked that sort of thing,” I said. I suddenly realized I knew almost nothing about Rose the person. I knew plenty about her as Rose the Vampiric Knight. I also knew the attitude she generally presented, and this was different. Was that just her being in character? Or was she just so hungover, she let her walls down?

  “I’m not good or anything, but it works for the skill. I’ll be glad when I get to level 10, then I can just focus on enchanting. So, journaling?” asked Rose.

  “Yeah, I was struggling to find something to write about and before I knew it, I had just written the story of my first day here. I was doing ‘Drawing’ too, so I drew a few pictures to go with it. It worked pretty good to level both at the same time. Stupid me though, I leveled up way above level 10 and when I evolved the skills all those levels were lost,” I explained.