by Lucas Dunn
None
Level
16(Percent towards next level: 0%)
Fame
1,880(Respect)
Health
400
Mana
990
Intelligence (1 point = 30 towards mana)
33
Constitution (1 point = 20 towards health)
20
Wisdom (1 point = +.5 mana per second)
20
Strength (1 point = x.1 physical damage.
20 [Damage modifier = (damage * 2.0)
Stamina
20
Dexterity
20
Luck
5(+10 from Ring)
Abilities
Dark Sight: See with 100% proficiency in darkness. (Non-Passive)
Dark Shroud: Unable to be heard or detected by the followers of light through divine or mundane magic. (Passive)
Divine Fortitude: Resist attempts to influence your mind(Passive)
Skills
Water Magic: 0% towards next level. 0% resistance. [Level one]
Earth Magic: 12% towards next level. 5% resistance. [Level two]
Fire Magic: 3% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Air Magic: 5% towards next level. 5% resistance. [Level two]
Dark Magic: 20% towards next level. 5% resistance. [Level two]
Light Magic: 1% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Lightning Magic: 48% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Mana Manipulation: Process of efficiently using mana. 8% towards next level. Cast speed, damage, success rate. +11% effective. [Level four]
Spell Creation: You have the ability to create your own spell. Current limit of four runes. 12% towards next level. (Non-Passive) [Level Four]
Sneak: You are able to slightly conceal your presence and noise. 10% reduction to noise and noticeability. -45% reduction to speed. [Level two]
Tracking: You are able to follow game by their tracks. [Level One]
Pain Constitution: You are able to ignore 1% of pain. [Level one]
Appraise: You are able to see name and level of some mobs. [Level one]
Quests
Summon a minor god
Array a force of at least 100 strong
Figure out your race
Chapter 14
Work was spent browsing the forums trying to see what I could learn as far as settlements and other players. Apparently there have been four players that reached level 30 last night. Coincidentally each of the players follow the god of light religiously. Their posting about special boons that their getting and how the light god has chosen them to lead the war against the Dark One.
I contemplated this for a while and decided I would need to definitely get Jake in on my fortress. Another thing that came to my attention was the fact that all of the players were level 30. This was almost twice as high as my level, but with all the high level mobs near me it shouldn’t be too hard to grind my way to level 20 tonight. I figured these next few nights that is what I’d do and have Jake head to my mountains. I ended up shooting him a quick text and telling him to ditch the players. I was going to need him and I was going to need to spend my next three platina to populate my village.
My work day was spent online rather than helping my team debug the fault in our new system update. The huge healthcare company I worked with the last five years of my life was pretty boring. I spent most of my day reading logs and setting up servers for the company. It payed decent but I definitely wasn’t going to stick around much longer. I had a week’s worth of vacation I had put in for next week. Hopefully that would give me plenty of time to catch up to the other players, but until then I was on my own at work.
Chapter 15
After eating a hearty dinner, I had hopped back in the VR capsule to find a surprise waiting for me. I had left off yesterday at front gate, too mad to think about going back to the fort. What I saw when I returned was a huge stack of hide we had acquired yesterday plus an additional one sitting next to the archer. The archer must have sensed my presence because she whipped around quickly bow drawn in an instant.
“I thought we had more trust than that”, I said wryly.
Stammering back and lowering her bow she spoke “Forgive me, I am still not used to you adventurers yet. I saw very few of you when I was in my village.”
Nodding back “Don’t worry about it. Did you do all of the that?” I said pointing at the mound of hide.
“Yes, while you were away I did not have much else to do. I was able to level up two more times before I had a close call with a group of wolves that came out of the forest. They were much bigger and darker than the ones we hunted. Had I not leveled up my Snag spell I don’t think I would have made it. I can now snag three targets now but the wolves were so big it hardly held them back.”
“I’m impressed. But in the future please stay closer to the gate when alone. You saw how the rhino caught me last time and I definitely don’t want anything like that happening to you.” I was sincere about it. Not just because she cost 50 gold but because I had grown closer to her in terms of friendship the past day. Combat does that to a person I guess.
Nodding her head in assent I told her to follow me as I made my way up to the dwarf. When we reached his forge he was snoring loudly passed out on the ground next to the anvil. There were neat stacks of Iron ingots laying on the ground next to him. The only weapons not smelted were the axe and the longsword dropped by the king arachnid. His forge had been completed along with him smelting all the items and that when I realized something.
“You haven’t slept yet have you Elif?” I said concerned
“No my lord I figured I would prepare as much as I could for what is to come. I can gain more strength with you tonight if you wish.”
“No, please rest. I have plans for tonight anyway with more inductees.” I said already turning and heading toward the command center.
She followed me turning toward the barracks to spend the night in relative comfort unlike the dwarf. But then again, maybe that was comfortable to the dwarf. Who knows. Stepping up to the command console I browsed for what I needed. I had enough platina for six more recruits. I wanted all warriors, but that wouldn’t be practical due to the needs of a village. I knew without a doubt I needed a carpenter, a tanner, and a stone mason. That left three spots open as I sat contemplating. In the end my first choice was a human warrior, who I’d have specialize in doing physical damage with sword or another blades. My second choice was an elf mage buffer, and finally my last choice was a female human warrior that I would turn into a tank. All had an alignment with the Dark one so I quickly selected my choices and watched them flash into the control room.
This time getting down to business I spoke in a very serious voice. “You all know who I am and I know a little about each of you. Time is short and war is almost upon us so we must prepare quickly. “
Haden the tanner. There are hides piled against the front gate that must be made into leather armor and clothing. Jorgen the carpenter, you must help Haden build a place to work along with Henry the mason.” I quickly summoned three basic laborers and continued.
“These will help you acquire the materials needed. Do not go outside the villages walls as there are beasts that will tear you to shreds. Send the laborers to gather resources. I wish for the majority of the building from here on out to be made of stone or at least in some way fireproof.” Makin eye contact with the other three I told them their mission.
“Elizabeth, you will become the tank. That means will build up your constitution, and I’ll leave the rest to you. Jackson you already know what you need to do as a mage buffer and Blade…” that was an interesting name for what I had in mind for him. “You will specialize in…blades. Any objections?”
Waiting to hear complaining, I was surprised when none came. I could tell I was going to enjoy working with NPC’s than players in the future.
“Alrigh
t everybody let’s move out.” I ordered as I swiftly turned around. My improved dexterity making it look much more impressive than it would have had in real life. The only thing that took away from the experience was my torn starter clothes that hardly held my bits and pieces in. I realized I had totally just lost a couple points with my men and women. Without looking behind me as I walked through the fort I shouted. “Haden I expect that first set of clothes to be done in double time.” I know I was acting a little militaristic, but I wasn’t going to treat this like a game. I had to whip these NPC’s into shape and myself to prepare. I lost too much time as it was by being at work for half the week.
Once at the gate I showed the tanner the hides and told him to get to work as soon as possible. I had given the tank the longsword from the arachnid and allowed her to keep her short sword. I gave Blade my other short sword and told him to learn to dual wield with his also. I had taken the one handed axe holding it unfamiliarly. After talking to the elf buffer I had figured out he had four spells at his disposal. The first was the standard healing spell. The second was a dexterity buff. The third was a dexterity debuff and the final was a negate buff that allowed him to counter any buff as long as he had equal magic and skill. The buff and debuff lasted for one hour and gave a 10% increase or decrease to dexterity to a group of six. Happy with the group, I told them how this was going to work. “We were going to train until everybody reaches level ten. While everybody tries to reach level ten, I will be the one to attack and the rest of you will attack afterwards. Even you Jackson” I said handing him my knife. “From there we will begin acting like a unit since you will have placed your points into the correct build. Elizabeth will draw the mobs and block the damage while striking when possible. Blade, you will engage in any that slip past Elizabeth. If none do, then it is your job to flank and take any opportunity to strike. Jackson will rebuff us as well as it takes a while for him to cast. Jackson will also be our healer. I will stay in the back and cast spells or join in the fighting if necessary. The main goal for you guys is to level up into your rolls. Right now you are flesh bags waiting to be torn apart. Jackson will be in the middle. Elizabeth you take left point. Blade you take right point, and I will take back. Let’s head out!” I commanded opening the gate.
I really wanted to level up my small force, as well as my earth magic. I had big plans for it in the future battle against the kobolds, but I wanted everyone to be at least at level 20. This would make it an even fight against so many numbers in the cavern, as well as make the plains easily passable. I wanted to reach at least level 25 myself before facing them because I am starting to need a lot more mana. Especially for what I planned. Earth magic was probably going to end up being my biggest focus from now on. I could create huge changes to the battle field in an instant if I got high enough. Soon I would get my ability, and once I reached level 30 I would finally be able to choose my class. The forums had said that you got a crazy power boost according to the class you chose. Of course the only ones who got there so far were the light one’s followers but I planned on changing that. One thing that I pondered was what my class would be. Some classes were race specific and the legends were passed down through each races history. My class choices should be interesting seeing as I don’t even know my own race. Of course all races could choose the class warrior, but not all classes could choose the ogre’s barbarian class. It was meant as a balance to make sure there wasn’t a berserker fairy that could dual-wield axes 20 times its size. The strength penalty that applied to the fairy class would take care of that but you never knew in this game.
Chapter 16
We started of slow with me impaling a giant horned rabbit while Elizabeth and Blade swung at it wildly. Continuing this process Elizabeth was stabbed twice in the arm by the rabbit’s horn, but they leveled quickly as we methodically cleared the rabbits. Both of their swings slowly becoming less wild and more precise. Eventually I allowed Jackson to go in and stab it to get points as well. We collected many hides as we went and continued the same slaughter until it was about an hour before midnight. At that point I wasn’t even needed to stop the creature as long as they were careful and double teamed it. They started to apply my group strategy a couple of levels before level ten with sloppy execution, but at least it was earlier than expected. Plus, my tank had nothing to tank with besides a long sword.
Leaving them to level and perfect their strategy alone, I hunted only a 100 yards away at most not wanting to stray too far from my newly trained pups. I had leveled up to 17 and put all 7 points into intelligence. Not only that but I had leveled up earth and was 20% away from leveling up air. I continued focusing on my earth and air magic when a howl tore through the night. Turning to my troops I saw it literally paralyzed my new units.
Due to Divine Fortitude you have Resisted Bone Chilling howl: This howl freezes and paralyzes any in its vicinity for five seconds
Sprinting over to my group before they even started to unfreeze I shouted in my most commanding voice “RUN TO THE FORT!”
We were caught directly in the middle. The black wolves exiting the forest were exactly one mile away and the gates of the village the same length. Cursing at my luck with wolves, I started shouting at Jackson to go faster. At the half mile mark I turned around to see them 200-yards behind us. Three warhorse sized wolves dark as night. Wishing my lightning spell would work on something this big, I had to make do with my newly improved earth spike. At six feet in length this thing was not something to sneeze at. As I released the spell, it ripped through the wolf’s chest breaking the spike and causing the wolf to crash to the ground. Two more of those and another .1 miles to go I turned around again only to see the wolves getting back up like nothing had happened. Not risking looking at the prompts we swiftly made our way into the village as the wolves dispersed back into the forest.
Jackson passed out as soon as we entered the gate, and Elizabeth fell to the ground panting, both of their stamina bars probably empty. Slapping Jackson back awake, I checked my prompts with my jaw falling to the floor.
500 of 2500 Critical damage done to level 30 Dire Wolf
500 of 2500 Critical damage done to level 30 Dire Wolf
500 of 2500 Critical damage done to level 30 Dire Wolf
The god forsaken wolf had a class! Not to mention the fact it was level thirty which was above mine. The only reason I had even done that much damage was because of them sprinting full speed at me. Shuddering at the possibility of it getting ahold of me, I redirected my attention to my group. “For the rest of the night you can go to the forts barracks and rest. I want you to only train in the light of day. I also expect a secondary and possibly third skill to be picked up. This, you can choose. It can be learning to cook or throwing knives. I don’t care as long as it is at least a little beneficial.
Watching them stumble up the hill I wondered if I was being a little hard. Snorting and dismissing the idea, I looked back into the plains. The wolves were gone and I wanted to level up my air/earth magic and overall level before it got to be morning. Planning on staying within a half-mile of the walls I journeyed back out.
Four hours of using air magic and earth magic later I ended up leveling up twice along with my air magic and decided to spend the rest of the night in my actual bed at home. I had about four hours till I had to get up till work anyway and I needed a break from the gore. Returning to the fort I distributed my points mostly into intellect and some into dexterity, I logged off thinking of new spell to create out of my air and earth magic only to face palm at my mistake. I was two points away from my first skill in intelligence. I had completely blanked out and put it into dexterity. Mumbling to myself, I made my way to my bed annoyed.
Name
Lucian(Lord of Shadow’s Edge. First Priest of The Dark One.)
Race
???
Class
None
Level
19(Percent towards next level: 3%)
Fame
1,850
(Respect)
Health
400
Mana
1,440
Intelligence (1 point = 30 towards mana)
48
Constitution (1 point = 20 towards health)
20
Wisdom (1 point = +.5 mana per second)
20
Strength (1 point = x.1 physical damage.
20 [Damage modifier = (damage * 2.0)
Stamina
20
Dexterity
26
Luck
5(+10 from Ring)
Abilities
Dark Sight: See with 100% proficiency in darkness. (Non-Passive)
Dark Shroud: Unable to be heard or detected by the followers of light through divine or mundane magic. (Passive)
Divine Fortitude: Resist the strongest attempts to influence your mind(Passive)
Skills
Water Magic: 0% towards next level. 0% resistance. [Level one]
Earth Magic: 1% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Fire Magic: 3% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Air Magic: 1% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Dark Magic: 20% towards next level. 5% resistance. [Level two]
Light Magic: 5% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Lightning Magic: 48% towards next level. 10% resistance. [Level three]
Mana Manipulation: Process of efficiently using mana. 55% towards next level. Cast speed, damage, success rate. +11% effective. [Level four]
Spell Creation: You have the ability to create your own spell. Current limit of four runes. 12% towards next level. (Non-Passive) [Level Four]