First Login (The World Book 1)

by Jason Cheek

  A part of my mind ridiculed the thought processes I had at times like this when I was fighting for my life, while the other part sought for every dirty trick I could think of to get these spastic beasts off of me as I fought for my life. As soon as the timer ticked for my Frost Nova spell, I blasted it out again as the frozen wave locked the Kobolds in place wherever they were. Some were frozen three feet high in midair while others were stopped on all fours. The extra appendage of their tails added to the ridiculous scene. I’m sure it would have been quite humorous at any other time, but the Kobolds’ beady, red eyes and fang-filled maws made my skin crawl. Hurriedly I finished off the scaly bastards clinking to my back, stomping and slashing them to death, before retreating back down the tunnel blasting individual Kobolds.

  I didn’t finish them off with double-taps but spread out my fire to slow the enraged mobs down. This time when they unfroze I was able to kite them in a more traditional way. Most of the Kobolds’ only had around a 100 Hit Points left. I could have blasted them to death individually as they rushed me in a slow-moving line from the freeze effect of my blasts, but instead, I used my Jagged Bonesplitter axe to finish them off. By then I was down to 800 Hit Points and 440 Mana, so I didn’t dare drain my reserves further.

  It was always a tough balance to know when to conserve and when to go ‘balls to the wall’ all out. Most fights, I liked to keep myself with a reserve of Mana for when the shit hit the fan. Although I hadn’t done a great job of that during my battle against the Goblin Raiders, then again it wasn’t like I’d had much of a choice in the matter. Anything less than all out and I would’ve died a horrible death along with my NPCs.

  “Stop him!” Sarka shout pulled my focus back to the far end of the cavern where the rest of my group were chasing after the elite Goblin Task Master as the mob sprinted in slow motion for the curve of the tunnel. He only had a sliver of health left, maybe 150 Hit Points. But, instead of fighting to death where he stood, the Elite Goblin was running for help.

  I swore vehemently, blasting an Ice Lance at the mobs retreating back just as Yun and Unalia hit the mob to bring the goblin’s Hit Points down to 60 points of health. My icy blast killed the mob instantly, but not before it had a chance to bellow for help. As I hacked the last Kobold to death, I heard a shrill yapping as twenty-one more Kobolds came charging around the corner full tilt. One of them was bright red with a golden crown by its name, Vuri Rockcrusher.

  “Fuck, fall back! It’s an elite mini-boss.” I shouted out, my blood turning to ice in my veins as I saw the beginning of our group’s wipe in slow motion. Normally in a game like this, I’d be thrilled to see a unique mini-boss. I’m sure this was one of those crazy random mobs with special drops that were a rare spawn, but in our current condition, this was bad news. Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one who understood just how dangerous these evil little bastards were. Sarka was already shifting her shield to make a stand as Yun and Unalia began firing into the wave of Kobolds. None of them heard my yell to fall back as I took off at a sprint.

  I had to do something quick, or we were going to wipe here and now. I was down to one Frost Nova and eight Ice Lances. Opening my character sheet, I quickly dropped 17 points of my unused 27 attribute points that I’d been saving up into intelligence and close the window’s virtual interface. The expenditure dropped me down to only 10 reserve attribute points, but it gave me a boost of another four Ice Lances and a Frost Nova with the leftover Mana I still had available.

  It still wouldn’t be enough to tag all of the Kobolds or take down the mini-boss, but it should be enough to balance out the scales and keep us all alive. Worst case scenario was that I’d used my ten leftover points to pull our asses out of the fire, but I’d really rather save them if I could since I still didn’t know what I needed for my House of Kayden’s Dark magic profession.

  Just as Sarka was about to be overwhelmed with mobs, my charge brought me in range of the Kobolds as a Frost Nova blasted out from me in a wave of ice. This time I didn’t bother to close with the nasty, little buggers. Instead, I immediately began retreating down the tunnel repeatedly blasting individual Kobolds with my Ice Lances. The shots freed-up every mob that they hit but I was counting on the spell’s freeze effect and the mobs’ low Hit Points to save my ass. Each blast I got off while the kobolds were frozen doubled my spell’s damage output, basically one-shotting the Kobolds. Still, that left a shit load of mobs coming after me.

  I saw Sarka go into overdrive as she grabbed another four of the little bastards that were in her range as Tinyr and Unalia took down their target, while Yun switched to healing. I felt one of his golden healing spells wash over me as the sixteen surviving kobolds swarmed over me. If not for the 50% slow down effect I’d have been overrun again before I’d even had a chance to draw my hand-axe.

  Still, I’d barely just gotten my shield and hand-axe up when the mini-boss and another unfrozen kobold dodged around their comrades and leaped at me with their flailing pickaxes like hyped-up crackheads. I Shield Bashed the first Kobold like a batter hitting a home run. The hit sending the scaly beast caroming off the tunnel’s wall as the chopping strike of my hand-axe slammed the mini-boss hard onto the rocky ground as the red Kobold’s pickaxe savagely hammered into my upper body.

  I lifted my Jagged Bonesplitter axe up into the air with the Kobold still stuck on the blade as the little fucker kept slamming its pickaxe into me again and again. In a fit of rage, I brutally slammed the mob into the wall and the ground, but nothing stopped the insane psycho’s attacks until I bodily kicked the mini-boss off my blade. Vuri Rockcrusher crashed into his fellow Kobolds sending a number of them sprawling on the tunnel’s rocky floor. The rest of mobs surged forward in a brown seething mass of high-pitched, yipping shrieks as my freeze effect wore off.

  Again I found myself fighting for my life against a small horde of enraged midget lizards. The enraged Vuri Rockcrusher showed up one more time, but after a quick exchange of blows the little fucker finally keeled over dead. Again, I did my best to spread out my attacks on the seething mass of mobs. One strike of my axe was enough to kill, even if it took an additional fifteen seconds for the bleed effect to finish the kobolds off. Still, my health plummeted down to 200 Hit Points before I could blast out another Frost Nova again. This time I finished off the frozen survivors one-by-one before the 8-second timer wore off.

  By the time I’d finished the last mob off, it felt like I was bleeding from everywhere as I gasped for breath. The mini-boss, Vuri Rockcrusher, had hit surprisingly hard for a midget. Looking around, I saw my friends at the far end of the tunnel. They’d manage to kill two of the four Kobolds Sarka had pulled, but they were all at the end of their rope as they struggled to take down the last two. Yun was out of Mana and was attacking with one of the Goblin’s Rockjaw Choppers he’d looted earlier. Unalia was fighting alongside him as they both traded blows with one of the remaining Kobolds, while Tinyr and Sarka took on the last mob. Both groups were bloody wrecks but seemed to be holding their own for the moment as I forced my body to move.

  Getting my legs pumping in a limping run, I slammed into Yun’s and Unaila’s Kobold with a Shield Bash. Letting my momentum carry me, I ricocheted into Sarka’s and Tinyr’s Kobold with my Jagged Bonesplitter Axe leading the way. The mob bounced off the tunnel wall to come to a stop at my feet as I lifted the axe high into the air and brought it down splitting the Kobold’s head from its spindly little body. Whipping around, I caught the last mob in the side of the head with my axe blade. Following up with a Shield Bash, I raised my axe overhead and struck again. This time chopping the scaly beast in two.

  Ripping my blade free, I swung around wild-eyed looking for more enemies. Seeing nothing threatening nearby, I felt my legs give out underneath me as I sat down hard onto the rocky floor of the tunnel. Around me, the rest of the group followed my example, albeit the ladies with a little more grace, as we breathed heavily looking around stunned at the leftover carnage from the fight. />
  “I can’t believe we did it.” Tinyr breathlessly said as he caught the wolf-jerky I tossed him. “When that second group of Kobolds came yipping around the corner, I thought we were dead for sure.”

  “Honey, I hope you’re not going to continue repeating yourself after every fight.” Unalia got out in-between bites as we all laughed at her joke.

  “Thanks for pulling those last four Sarka. If you guys,” seeing Unalia’s eyebrow suddenly raise, I immediately corrected myself, “and gals hadn’t pulled them off of me, I would have been wrecked.”

  “Wrecked?” Sarka exclaimed rolling her eyes. “You still have almost doubled my max Hit Points.”

  “I know, right. Seriously though, that was some kickass tanking.” I said laughing along with Sarka as we gave each other a fist bump. Taking a long pull from my water pouch, I gave Yun a wry grin. “Good job on those heals too.”

  “You mean my husband wasted heals on you too?” Sarka asked in mock severity as her husband smiled at her tone.

  “Yea, I gave him a quick restore when all those Kobolds rushed him towards the end,” Yun said holding his hands up defensively. “I promise it won’t happen again, Hon.”

  “So who didn’t gain a level or three on that last fight?” Tinyr chipped in with a shit eating grin as our laughing stopped suddenly while we all checked our character sheets.

  “Woohoo, ding,” I said belatedly as everyone excitedly began reported in their new levels. I’d gained a level while everyone else in our group had gained three, and that was even with the level difference between us. To be honest, I was surprised I’d received any experience. No matter how tough the scaly, little bastards were, they’d still been eight levels below me.

  Still, considering everyone’s levels, it made a certain kind of sense. The mobs were just low enough not to offer much overall experience per kill, but there were more than enough of them to make up the difference. Not to mention, their levels had been nearly perfect for the rest of our group. Also, since we weren’t hitting the dungeon with fifteen players at a time, there was more than enough experience to go around, and we hadn’t even made it to the entrance of the instance.

  I still needed to level up my Light Magic skill. Seeing everyone’s Hit Points were only slowly recovering and that my Mana had restored enough for me to do some leveling-up, I stood up and began repeatedly casting Heal. I was able to get three heals off for everyone in the team before starting to heal myself, which gave me an additional eight more Heal casts before my Hit Points were topped off. Checking my stats, I smiled. The twenty casts had brought me up three levels.

  No complaints there. I needed all help I could get with leveling up my Light magic. The sooner I got to level 5 for the Quick Heal spell the better. The first level healing spell was atrocious. Ten seconds to cast 74 points of healing. To be any help in a fight, you’d have to start healing your target as soon as the battle started. Otherwise, your ability to help out healing during a fight was almost nil. But this topping off your group members’ Hit Points as they sat recovering after the battle felt like a cheat. Not that I was complaining. Only Tinyr had paid attention to what I was doing since everyone else had been lost in their interface assigning character stats. As I sat down to recover my Mana, Tinyr spoke up.

  “Don’t take this wrong. I’m more than happy for all of the extra experience points, but I’d rather not have to take on another 40 Kobolds back-to-back with an elite Goblin Task Master and a Kobold mini-boss again unless we have to. Any ideas on how we can do that?”

  “I might, but first I need to check around the corner first to see if I’m right,” I said getting back to my feet. Looking around at the dead bodies strewn around the tunnel, I grimaced. “But, let’s loot these mobs first.”

  There was nothing particularly spectacular in the drops combat-wise. Tinyr was interested in the Task Master’s whip, and I gladly let him have it. What I did find interesting was the pickaxes, since leveling up crafting professions were high on my list and, in a medieval type culture such as this, mining and smithing were at the top of that list. What did get my blood racing in excitement was the Pickaxe of Earth that Vuri Rockcrusher, the Kobold mini-boss, dropped when he died. The mob must have been a special spawn. The pickaxe gave +2 to a player’s mining skill, which had me itching to try my hand at one of the many mineral deposits throughout the tunnel.

  There was some inexplicable draw about gathering free resources in MMORPG that mentally affected players. Well, at least with those players that were gatherers. It wasn’t anything I’d ever seen documented or discussed outside of a joking manner since almost every group of players I knew had been affected by this at one time or another.

  There’s nothing like being in the middle of a fight in the wilds and suddenly seeing one of your teammates go running off to pick a flower for their herbalism skill or mine a node for their mining skill while leaving the rest of their team to fend for themselves. Or even worse, having one of your teammates go running into a group of high-level mobs to get their herb or mineral which then ends up killing the entire party by aggro’ing the rest of the group. This wasn’t a newbie thing but a unique phenomenon in MMORPGs that happened all the time to players that liked to gather free materials.

  Let me rephrase that. It only happens once a player decides to become a gather. As soon as a player made the choice to gather a resource, it’s like the player’s brain shuts down as soon as they see the resource they have the skill to collect. In a gatherer’s defense, I can say a part of this was due to the lack of resources in-game and players having to fight off other gatherers trying to get to the resource first, but even with that being said, there was something in our human psyche that was naturally drawn to this gathering activity. Maybe it was some primitive part leftover in our genetic code that still affected us even through a digital medium. And, it wasn’t just a woman thing. Men were just as equally affected by this phenomenon too.

  Stopping the insanity required the player to make a conscious decision to control their gathering addiction, which was why the palms of my hands were suddenly sweating as I forced myself to think of the safety of the group and my desire to complete the nightmare quest I was working on. The desire was even made worse by having a +2 to mining pickaxe in my bag. But, before I could whack at these mineral deposits, I had to make sure the area was secure.

  Thankfully, those thoughts cleared my head as I helped Tinyr gather up the loot into piles to divide up for everyone. At first, he wanted to leave the common items behind, but after a quick discussion on making money in-game by selling the items to the vendors in town, he was quickly collecting everything he could. As we finished up, we passed the body of the elite Goblin Taskmaster both carefully stealthed to blend into the tunnel. I caught Tinyr’s eye softly whispering.

  “If we come under attack, I’ll hold them off while you gather the team.” Seeing Tinyr’s thumbs up, we proceeded around the bend. The immediate area was clear of mobs, although you could plainly see where the Kobolds had been mining. Further down the tunnel, we could see more groups of Kobold miners before the tunnel curved again. From where we stood it was easy to see that each group of Kobold miners had a wide space between them that was patrolled by a single elite Goblin Taskmaster that supervised the work being done. Looking at the mineral deposits closest to me, I could see something that looked like a copper vein running through the stone. Seeing that it was relatively safe, relative being that nothing was close enough to aggro. I stood up and popped my shoulders.

  “Tinyr, mind getting the rest of the team? I want to try to mine this lode.” I said pulling out my new pickaxe. I felt my inner greed demon perk its head out as I walked up to the node. I’d have to talk to the group about the special pickaxe I’d looted, but in all honesty, I planned on keeping the item. I think that was more than fair since I’d already done so much to help both couples out and even helped them gear up with new equipment to boot. Still, I had to give everyone the option to discuss the
decision.

  “Sure, be right back man,” Tinyr said with a grin as he took off back down the tunnel.

  Taking one last look to make sure no one was close, I struck at the stone with a pickaxe. The jarring impact nearly made my arms nub out as I fought to control the deflection of the heavy blade. The sharp tip skittered off the rock nearly hitting my shin as it came to an abrupt stop buried into the rocky floor. Working the point free, I lifted the pickaxe over my head and tried again. This time the point just jolted to a stop in the stone without making any noticeable mark. I felt myself getting frustrated but forcibly calmed my nerves and tried again. I knew this wasn’t going to be exactly easy since I hadn’t stopped by the mining trainer when I was in town, but there was no way I was going to let this opportunity pass me by. Besides the ore, free skill-ups were huge savings in money alone. I just had to keep at it, and the skill would come.

  It took me about ten more hits before I saw the system message pop-up. It came as the first chunk of ore suddenly popped out of the node to fall on the ground at my feet.

  Congratulations! You have learned a new craft, Mining!

  I smiled happily and continued with my work. The mining became easier as I slowly reduced the node to a pile of copper colored stone. Although the chunks of stone I broke away seemed to do nothing for my skill, it at least gave me better access to the actual ore inside the node. Each actual piece of copper ore I worked loose did increase my mining skill and seemed to make the overall mining process easier to accomplish. By the time I’d worked the mineral deposit down to a nub, sweat was streaming down my face and under my armor as I stood up happily to look at the results of my work. Six small chunks of ore laid at my feet.